


You're the Worst Thing That's Ever Happened to Me (But You Don't Totally Suck)

by Elmer_s_s0cks



Series: The Pressures of Being Young [1]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anxiety Disorder, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Modern Era, Past Drug Use, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-01-20 18:59:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21286601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elmer_s_s0cks/pseuds/Elmer_s_s0cks
Summary: Friendships can happen in unlikely circumstances. For instance, knocking someone over with your car as you reverse out of a parking space. Romeo always thought that the world worked in mysterious ways, and now he’d been proven right.
Series: The Pressures of Being Young [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534478
Comments: 25
Kudos: 15





	1. The new kid.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day back at school after summer break, and Romeo honestly couldn't have felt better. Except for an accident that he'd carry on his conscience forever.

The summer had been uneventful, except for the fact that Romeo had recently passed his driving test – thank goodness. He was also fortunate enough that his parents had surprised him with a car of his own. It was a little torn up, dull orange Jeep that his grandad had owned before he’d passed away. It was one of the old models, but Romeo wasn’t that strung up on cars to really care what model it was – he was just incredibly happy to have his own freedom on four wheels.

So, here he was, sixteen, walking down the hallway on his first day of Junior Year with his new car, new backpack and his mom’s all famous chicken noodle soup packed in a flask in said backpack. What more could he ask for?

_A new locker._ He thought to himself as he jiggled with the combination on the slightly dented hinged door.

“Come on…” Romeo muttered, trying once again.

It opened after a little more effort, and Romeo sighed. He didn’t want to deal with a dodgy locker all year, but he decided to stay positive about it – it was only the first day after all, and a locker was hardly his number one priority right now.

In fact, Romeo’s number one priority at this moment in time was finding where exactly he had to go for first period. It sounded weird, since this place wasn’t new to him, but the school site had had a rejig during summer break – which meant that where things were, were not where they were now.

Romeo took his lunch out if his bag, putting in his locker for later – he could keep his bag more organised then throughout the day. Plus, he didn’t want anything leaking on his schoolwork; he took pride in it.

He’d already alphabetised his books at home, labelled and organised all of his folders, as well as filed away any previous work that he had done the previous year.

His friends often looked to him for advice on homework and help on assignments; and this was mainly because he had everything so neatly nearby, and he always knew what he was looking for.

He’d always been like that, and he probably always would be.

Romeo would keep his room moderately tidy, and his desk even more so, (except for those late-night study sessions he had if he felt like he was running out of time). It was all in a day’s work. 

Romeo closed his locker, then was trying to decide which way down the corridor he should go.

“Hey, pipsqueak.”

Ah, Mush.

“It’s Ro, Mush, you know that. How long have we known each other?” Romeo said.

Mush stood in front of him, pausing to think of a response.

“Well.” He said, “Long enough to know that you haven’t grown since Freshman Year.”

Romeo rolled his eyes – typical Mush.

“Nah, I’m joking.” Mush huffed out a laugh.

He always made height jokes, despite not being the tallest guy out there. Romeo assumed it was something to do with the fact that, Mush was a year older than him, and one of the shortest guys in Senior Year. He knew the feeling.

“Anyway, you look lost, is what I meant to point out.” Mush said.

Romeo only sighed at this, not having realised that he looked that obvious.

“Yep, that’s me, Captain Lost.”

“Captain Lost? That’s one of the lamest things you’ve ever said, Ro.”

Mush put his arm around Romeo’s shoulders and guided him in the opposite direction of his locker.

“So, what do you have first?” He asked as they walked rather slowly together.

“Math.”

“Love it.”

“Hate it.”

Mush scrunched up his face at him. “Math is by far the greatest thing that’s ever happened to humanity, hands down.”

“That’s only because you can’t write, at all. You got Jojo to write your English assignment last year, and your History one…and your Psychology one. Did you write anything yourself last year?” Romeo said.

“I told him what to write, Jo just put it in better words for me.”

Mush paused where the corridor reached a crossroads.

“I think the Math department is down that way now, I grabbed one of the new school maps earlier.” He pulled it out of the side pocket of his rucksack. “Here, you can have it. I already have it memorised.”

He shrugged like it was no big deal, but Romeo had always aspired to have a photographic memory like Mush’s.

He accepted the sorry excuse for a site map.

“Thanks, Mush.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

Romeo glanced it over really quickly before saying, “What do you have first?”

“History…I’m gonna commit.”

Romeo just shook his head at his friend, “Well, it can’t be worse than having Math first thing on a Monday morning, bright and early.”

“AP Calculus is where it’s at, muchacho.”

“Never say that again.” Romeo groaned.

Mush laughed at him, clapping him on the back, making his getaway before Romeo could retaliate.

Broken locker aside, Romeo could tell that his year was going to a good one, as long as his friends were by his side, he didn’t care much about anything else.

* * *

Morning periods were over now, and Romeo was happy to know that Finch was in all of his classes so far. It was comforting especially because, they just worked well together academically, and he had wishful thinking that they would hopefully get to be partners on some assignments, at least.

“Lunch is the only good thing about school.” Racetrack said.

“Dude, the only reason you say that is because, you just eat junk all of the time.” Albert said.

The two of them looked at each other, then down to what they were each holding. Neither of their items were healthy, and their food habits were both as chaotic as each other.

“You’re both eating Doritos for lunch…The only difference is that Racer is brave enough to get the hot ones, whilst you just stick to plain cheese, Al.” Jojo inputted without looking up from his book.

His observation skills always astonished them.

Racetrack huffed out a breath, “We’re allowed to eat Doritos, Jo, Blink is.”

“Blink also has two fruit pots, a raspberry yoghurt and a mini blueberry muffin. He also ate a tuna sandwich like, five minutes ago.”

Albert chewed on a Dorito as he spoke. “What’s your point, Jorgelino?”

Jojo put his book down to look at him; “My point is that, Blink hasn’t had five packets of them in a row.”

Albert and Racetrack looked at the table, which was littered in ten empty packets of Doritos – five cheese, five hot. They then looked back to each other’s hands where culprits eleven and twelve were.

“Okay, point taken.” Albert said. “Race, get the gummy bears, Jojo is clearly saying that it’s time for dessert!”

Jojo rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath – something about ‘_why do I bother?_’

Blink just munched on a small fruit pot of grapes, having watched the scene unfold in his usual quiet manner.

Racetrack, albert and Blink were all in Junior Year, whilst Jojo was in Senior Year, along with Mush.

Their group went against all the cliché’s of, ‘you can’t sit with us because, you’re in the year below’. That wasn’t their vibe.

They had all bonded at one point or another, and they were quite a tight knitted friendship group. If they didn’t see each other during school, they’d be talking to each other outside of it about their days and playing Cards Against Humanity online – or whatever else they could think of to pass the time.

“Do you think gummy bears have different flavours? Or do you think they all taste the same?” Racetrack asked. “Because, I think they taste different, but Al doesn’t.”

“It’s what the government wants you to think, Racer. They all taste the same, it’s just pure sugar and animal fats.”

Jojo looked at his red-haired friend suspiciously.

“What? I only know that fact because, I binged watched every episode of How It’s Made over the Summer. I think I’m smarter than you now, Jo.” Albert said.

In all fairness, Albert was intelligent – they all were. That was probably why the group got along so well. They all just had their own interests to be more occupied about than other things.

For instance, Albert loved Biology, so did Blink, but Blink liked History a lot more. Jojo loved English Lit, and reading any book he could get his hands on. Mush loved Math, and anything involving numbers – so he was also born to enjoy Physics and Chemistry, most of the time. Finch loved anything to do with Art, and Romeo was obsessed with anything to do with the theatre. He often called it his guilty pleasure, but he wasn’t guilty about it at all – he didn’t have to be.

They all shared a passion for education in one way or another – they were just missing somebody who loved sports more than anything in the world; but Jojo highly doubted they’d fit in in any way. Well, Albert played baseball, but that was as sporty as they got.

“What’s up nerds.” Mush said as he approached the table, lunch tray in hand. “What’s kicking?”

“Please refrain from any phrase that includes ‘what’s kicking’ from now on, please.” Jojo said.

“I see you haven’t missed me in your fancy high achieving English class.”

“What? Miss you kicking the back of my chair for attention after you’d written one word? Never.” Jojo said.

Mush grinned across the table at him as he sat down next to Blink.

“What’s kicking, honey?”

Blink smiled. “Not much. Grape?”

“Don’t mind if I diddly do.”

“I’m gonna kill you.” Jojo grumbled.

Mush only said whacky phrases like that to get on Jojo’s nerves.

They’d been friends since Kindergarten, when Mush had kicked some kid for stealing Jojo’s packet of chocolate buttons. They’d been friends ever since.

Of course, Jojo had been the one to psyche Mush up to ask Blink out back in Sophomore Year. Just this fifteen-year-old with nervous, sweaty hands stood in front of his long-time crush. Blink’s face had been priceless, and they’d dated ever since.

Mush bought Jojo all of the chocolate buttons for that.

“Hey, Finch, gummy bear?” Albert asked his friend.

Finch looked up from his sketch book. “No thanks.”

Albert frowned but didn’t push the matter.

Finch was another quiet one of the group, next to Blink, of course. He didn’t eat much, but that was just Finch. He was often too caught up in his drawings to realise that lunch would be almost over, and it was too late for him to get something. That’s why Jojo always packed extra.

“Here.” Jojo said, passing Finch an apple and a packet of chips.

Finch smiled at him, “Thanks, man.”

“No problem.”

Mush just smirked at Jojo, who mouthed ‘_what?_’ back to him.

It was complicated.

Before Mush could tease him about it further, Romeo appeared, looking very flustered, flask of chicken noodle soup in hand.

“What’s up, buttercup?” Mush asked.

A groan from Jojo across the table.

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” Romeo claimed.

He hurriedly sat down, opening the flask and proceeding to occupy his mouth with the flavours of homemade soup…a bit too quickly.

“Slow down, Lancelot.”

“Okay, that one doesn’t even make any sense!” Jojo said.

Romeo coughed a little, taking a breather from practically inhaling his food.

“Well?” Mush asked.

All eyes were now on Romeo.

“Nothing, nothing at all.” He said.

“Dude, you’re hardly one to not talk about something.” Albert said. “Unless…”

“Unless?” Romeo queried.

“Unless it’s someone cute.” Racetrack chimed in.

The others were now smiling goofily at him from every which way.

“Alright, fine! Okay, okay!” Romeo admitted. “New guy, cute. A cute new guy with this gorgeous smile and arms that are like ‘why hello there, I’m hot and I know it’ vibe.”

There was a slight pause before;

“Alright, pay up Finchy boy.” Albert said. “You too, Blink.”  
“What!?” Romeo gasped.

“Oh, we placed bets to see how long it would take you to gush about somebody when school started again.” Blink explained. “Me and Finch both said it would take you at least a day and a half, but Albert said it would take until lunch…and well, you let us down, Ro.”

Finch grumbled as he gave Albert $5, sliding it across the table before burying himself back into his sketch book. Blink slid across his owed $5 too.

“I hope you’re happy, DaSilva…I was gonna buy a cherry slushy with that later…”  
Albert winked at him, “More for me then.”

“It’s alright, baby; I’ll get you one later when we’re busy driving to the store whilst Al is walking there.”

Albert practically pouted at them both as they just smiled at him innocently. “I hate you guys.”

He really, really didn’t though.

“Um, hello? Does anybody have any info for me on the new guy? What’s his name? What grade? Where is he from? What does he like? What does he eat? Does he work out? Who is he!? I have to know!” Romeo said, practically all in one breath.

Jojo, once again reading, answered back in a heartbeat – without even looking up. Romeo found it slightly unnerving anytime he did that.

“Thomas Martin. Senior. Australian, definitely. Probably swimming, since his hair was wet, and we had gym together. No idea, but probably not Doritos. Most certainly so. And for who is he? Well, does anybody know who they really are?”

Mush’s mouth dropped open, a carrot stick falling out as each of them stared at Jojo.

“What?” Jojo said as he glanced upwards.

“That was informative yet deeply philosophical all at the same time.” Mush said.

“I love it. No matter how much of a stalker that makes you Jojo, thank you.” Romeo said.

Jojo gawked at them. “I’m not a stalker! He’s in my classes!”

Nobody responded, and Jojo spent the rest of lunch reiterating that he wasn’t a stalker.

* * *

Overall, the school day had been a good one.

Romeo felt that he was on track with what he needed to plan for for each of his classes, and better yet, he’d actually managed to start enjoying Math; thanks to his new teacher.

Maybe he’d come to terms with it after all.

He sighed contently as he got into his car, smiling as he felt the steering wheel between his hands.

When he was littler, his grandad would sit him on his lap and let him pretend to drive for a little while. He got the same jolt of happiness now, despite sitting in the car alone without him. The vehicle had a comforting essence about it, and Romeo felt like it was somewhere he could let the pressures of school roll off of his shoulders and down into the seat. It was nice.

It was either that, or the fact that being in the car meant that he was one step closer to getting home – which meant he was one step closer to eating a delicious bowl of his mom’s all famous chilli.

Gosh, that woman could cook.

“I’m coming for you, chilli!” Romeo said aloud.

He turned the key, practically bouncing with joy to be getting out of this parking lot. However, his thoughts were disrupted by the unmistakable sound and feel of a bump, along with a yelp and a groan that was clear through Romeo’s open windows.

‘_Oh shit, I’ve killed someone. I’ve properly killed someone; I know I have. I have to go on the run now, oh god. Oh god, oh god. My mom’s gonna kill me. I’m a terrible person._’ Romeo had this on repeat in his head as he sat there frozen.

And perhaps the most insensitive, but not surprising thing;

‘_There’s no chilli in prison!_’

That was his biggest fear right now. Unmistakably so. 


	2. Travelling under the wheels.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Romeo hadn't expected his evening to go this way, but here he was - sat in the ER with an annoyed guy who was bleeding. Still, it could be worse.

Romeo was sat in his car in a panic, frozen stiff with no idea what he should do. The prison mantra had long gone, and he was just sat there now. It felt like forever, but when he looked at the dashboard, he’d only been sat there for about three minutes.

“Oi!”

Romeo jumped, turning his head to see a boy leaning on his open passenger-side window. He looked angry.

Oh no.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Do you even have eyes!?” He yelled at him.

Romeo gulped anxiously, trying to stammer out what was probably a stream of apologies, but it just came out as noises bubbling out of his throat.

“Are you dumb as well as blind? How are you even driving right now? Or at all, even.”

“Uh.” Romeo started, “I…I’m not dumb. I just-“

“Don’t tell me _you’re _in shock. I’m the one that you hit with _your shitty_ car!”

“Hey! This car isn’t ‘_shitty_’!” Romeo defended.

He was about to get caught up in telling this guy about all the specifics – about how much this car meant to him, and about how much his Grandad meant to him; just to go into even more detail. He would have said all of these things, that was, if the guy hadn’t been bleeding…

“Uh, you’re bleeding.” He pointed out.

The guy winced as he touched fingers to his forehead.

“For fucks sake.” He grumbled.

Romeo bit his lip anxiously, wondering what he should do in this situation. Especially being in a situation where he’d just hit the new guy…He’d figured that one out when he’d stumbled up to his car window.

Great. Just great. Flipping fantastic.

“What are you gawking at?” The boy – Thomas, right? Said.

At least, Jojo had said that his name was Thomas.

“Nothing.” Romeo said quickly, looking away before looking back at him again, quite sympathetically this time.

“Do you wanna get that checked out? Looks like you need stitches…”

Romeo waited for an answer, but he didn’t get one. Thomas just got in with a sigh.

“Are you sure you can drive?” He grumbled.

Romeo ignored that. “I’m sorry-“

“Save it. Just fucking drive.”

Romeo was beginning to think that this guy really, really didn’t like him.

* * *

“I hope I didn’t ruin your day or anything…” Romeo said.

They’d been sat in the ER waiting room for about half an hour. At least they’d given Thomas some tissue to help keep pressure on the cut on his forehead.

Thomas glanced at him briefly before sighing. “Not really.”

Progress.

“I am really sorry.” Romeo said.

“Guilty, is the word. You’re lucky I’m not pressing charges.” Thomas said.

“Charming.” Romeo mumbled.

It was then he realised that, he hadn’t even asked for his name, he’d just assumed what it was – not that he’d actually addressed him as such.

“So, what’s your name?” He asked.

“Why ask that? You’ll just get attached then. And then when you no doubt hit me with your car again, I’ll be dead.”

Romeo looked terrified at the thought.

“I’m messing with you.” He said. “It’s Tommy. _Not _‘Thomas’ or ‘Tee’ or ‘Tommy Boy’– or anything other variation you could ever think of.”

Romeo nodded.

_Tommy_. _It suited him_.

He watched as Tommy leaned his head back, closing his eyes.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah…Just tired. It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

Romeo took him as the sort of guy whose defences rolled down whenever he was in pain…Like it was too much effort to keep them up.

And Romeo now wondered how he’d gotten that philosophical about a person he’d literally just met. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that he did feel guilty, and Romeo tended to overthink everything when he felt bad about something. And the only thing to think about right now was who Tommy was and how this unfortunate event had affected him.

He could just ask.

“So…”

“You don’t have to sit here with me. In fact, I find you annoying and quite irritating. And stop thinking too hard, you’re giving me a headache.” Tommy snapped.

Romeo gaped at him, catching his words.

“I’m annoying? You’re the one who’s miserable.”

“And whose fault is that one, genius?”

Romeo slouched in his chair, crossing his arms.

“I liked you better under my wheels.” He muttered.

“_Charming_.” Tommy mocked Romeo’s earlier words.

Romeo couldn’t help but smile a little at that.

Tommy sank further into his chair, matching Romeo’s clear unhappiness on quite an extravagant level.

“What’s yours?” He asked reluctantly.

“My what?” Romeo said.

“Your name, dumbass.”

“Uh, right…” Romeo looked at Tommy and stuck out his hand for. “Romeo.”

A smirk reached Tommy’s face. “That’s a ridiculous name. Did your parents give you that one?”

It was obviously a dig.

“I don’t know what my real parents would have named me, they gave up on me as soon as I learnt how to walk.” Romeo said.

He waited for Tommy to react to what he had just said, and he laughed a little at the astonished expression – the one that spoke volumes of ‘maybe I went too far’.

“I’m joking, I’m joking.”

Tommy looked relieved.

“My birth parents did name me, before I was taken off of them because they were a pair of addicts with a heck of a lot of issues.”

And just like that, Tommy was looking at him like he’d just kicked a puppy.

Romeo smiled at him. “Sorry, that’s my toxic trait; I open up way too much to strangers. I just wanted to knock you off of your high horse for a little bit.”

“Consider me knocked.” Tommy grumbled. 

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, and the ER buzzed around them. There was a guy with an ice pack held to his head, which made Romeo wonder whether Tommy should have one – it would do better than the bloody tissues he’d been harbouring for the past hour.

“Did you say you rang your mom?” Romeo asked.

Tommy shook his head. “Nah, she’s working – wouldn’t be able to get through to her any way.”

“Oh.” Romeo found that a little bit sad.

“Don’t get all sympathetic on me now. You were wishing that I was under your car not that long ago.”

“I didn’t mean it.” Romeo whined.

Tommy rolled his eyes.

“Well, what about your dad?” Romeo tried again.

“I’ve been sat next to you this entire time and I haven’t called anybody. You’re not very observant at all.”

“You didn’t break your phone, did you?” Romeo asked, panicked that he’d damaged something else, along with Tommy’s head.

“No, don’t worry about it. My phone’s fine, I’m fine. It’s fine.”  
“Except the part where your head is…” Romeo looked at him properly. “Still bleeding.”

“Barely.”

“Then stop applying pressure.”

Tommy glared at him.

“That’s what I thought, Tombo.”

“Excuse me?” Tommy snapped.

Romeo smiled sheepishly at him. Making friends with the new kid was proving harder than he’d thought it ever would be; even if the car scenario had been mainly why he was talking to him in the first place.

He decided against saying anything else after that, for fear that his head would be bitten off.

A woman began to approach them, recognisable by her name badge and office apparel, it was clear she worked behind reception.

“Hi, are you…” She looked at her clipboard, “Thomas Martin?”

“Yep, that’s me.” Tommy said.

She smiled at him. “Hi, Thomas. We’re going to need a parent’s signature and for someone to fill out this paperwork here.”

The woman noticed the fed up look on Tommy’s face, she reaproached the situation.

“To get you seen quicker, I could give somebody a call for you?”

Tommy sighed, and then looked at Romeo. “I’m so sorry.”

“What do you mean?” Romeo asked.

And Tommy filled out a number on some paper for the receptionist, and she went on with her day.

“Tommy, what do you mean?”

Oh, man.

* * *

“You hit my brother with a car?”

Romeo now understood what Tommy had meant.

“Don’t make a big deal out of it.” Tommy grumbled to his sister.

“Don’t make a big deal out of it? Are you kidding me? You had to get stitches, which look horrendous, by the way. You’re an idiot.”

“I thought you were having a go at him, not me!” Tommy said, pointing sharply at Romeo, who had been backing away…

Tommy had gotten seen to not long ago and was in good shape considering he’d never actually been hit by a car before – even if it had only been a bump.

“I am!” Ross snapped back.

“Jesus, I’m fine! You don’t need to kill the guy!”

Romeo looked between the two of them and was kind of glad that he didn’t have a sibling.

Ross was Tommy’s sister, and being older than him (twenty-four), she was the only one available to come to his aid at that moment in time. Thus, being the one who was about to end Romeo…If she ever finished bickering with her brother.

“I’m not gonna kill him!” Ross said. “I just want to know how he managed to hit somebody!”

“I just wanted chilli.” Romeo said.

Ross and Tommy both looked at him, their heads moving in unison – which Romeo found unsettling.

“Right…” Ross gave him a weird look before sighing. “Look, just be careful, okay? You’re lucky it was just a bump to the head and not something worse.”

Romeo knew she was right, and he was definitely lucky that he wasn’t being punished for this. Well, not by Tommy or his sister – he probably had yet to feel the wrath of his parents, as well his own.

“Come on, Tommy.” Ross said as she began to make her way to her car.

“I’m not your fucking dog.” Tommy said after her, following anyway.

“No, you’re a tired dog.”

“What?”  
“You’ve been rubbing your eyes for the past fifteen minutes.” She said.

“Fine. Then I’m not a fucking toddler.”

“Just shut up and get in the car, idiot.”

Romeo’s first impression of those two were that they were nothing less than weird and slightly intimidating, if not very. 


	3. Nice meeting you, I hate you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Romeo introduces Tommy to his friends, and begins to wonder what kid of person he actually is.

Romeo was thankful that his parents hadn’t taken his keys off of him. However, he wasn’t thankful for being grounded for a week.

His parents were soft on him, and he’d never been grounded before because, there was never any reason for him to be. But he supposed that hitting somebody with your car was purpose for being grounded.

“Who let you back out on the road?”

Romeo looked across the car – his window rolled down with Tommy looking at him. It was much like the situation yesterday, had it not been for the line of stitches on Tommy’s forehead.

Ouch.

“How’s your head?” Romeo asked.

“How’s your driving?”

“If you think my driving is that bad, then why are you standing near my car?”

Tommy glared at him, which Romeo was thinking was his usual response to everything.

“Touché.” He said.

Romeo nodded in response, not letting Tommy’s horrid attitude to general life phase him in the slightest.

He gathered his things up and got out of his car, meeting Tommy around the other side where he’d been hanging out.

“So, what do you have first?” He asked.

Tommy just shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno, probably something.”

Ah, so his attitude extended to clearly not being the greatest fan of school.

“Well, you could just check.” Romeo said.

“Or we could just skip classes and go and do something.”

Romeo found that offer a little too tempting, since it would be like some film where they skipped classes, fell in love and lived happily ever after. He’d been watching too many rom coms recently.

“No.” He said.

Tommy raised an eyebrow at him. “It would be the least you could do, since you did hit me with your car.”

The way Tommy described it, it already did sound like the start of a terrible rom com.

“Used to getting your own way?” Romeo asked. It hadn’t meant to be a dig, but Tommy seemed to take it as one.

“Fuck off then.” He snapped and began walking away.

Well, Romeo had just had one of the weirdest morning encounters he could probably ever have with the new kid. He figured that he’d have to tread lightly with what he could say to Tommy because, within the short span of knowing him, he had gathered that he was a fuse that would blow off at anything he didn’t like – which was most definitely Romeo at this moment in time.

Romeo didn’t mind though, not everybody got along – but he had enjoyed talking to him. He was different than any of his other friends…Not that they were friends just yet. But maybe he wanted to be.

* * *

English Literature. Whoever thought of making English Lit a subject, Tommy wanted to know for no reason other than to give them a piece of his mind.

The teacher had set a reading task, and the only thing less boring than actually reading the provided text of An Inspector Calls, was seeing the boy across from him fail at flirting with the girl sat behind him.

Tommy sighed and leaned his head on the desk, being careful of the short line of stitches. He wasn’t in the mood for this, or any of his classes really. He couldn’t believe that Romeo had shut him down on actually skipping class; there were plenty of better things to be doing with their time. He had no motive to actually do well right now, or any motive to actually pay attention to what the teacher had been blabbering on about.

Read the text. Yeah, but why?

“Hello.”

Tommy looked to his side where a boy with light brown hair and ‘try-hard’ smile was flashing his way.

“Uh, hi?” Tommy said.

The boy smiled more at him, giving off a warm presence that Tommy actually found kind of annoying at this moment in time. That seemed to be the vibe he got from people at this school, and this was only his second day.

“You’re Thomas, right?” The boy asked him.

Of course, he glared back. “It’s Tommy, actually.”

He took pride in watching the boy’s smile falter.

“Oh, sorry. My names Jojo. You can call me Jo, if you like?” Jojo said.

Tommy disregarded the clear punch at friendliness of using a nickname – he didn’t care.

“I’m good, thanks.”

Jojo nodded awkwardly, not having expected the conversation to go this way. He liked helping people out, and he thought that giving Tommy a friendly face would make him feel more settled in his new surroundings.

“So…” He started. “When did you move to New York?”

“Sorry?” Tommy hadn’t been listening.

“When did you move here?” Jojo asked again.

Tommy didn’t want to make small talk, but if it gave him a reason not to do this stupid reading task, then he’d take it.

“What makes you think I haven’t lived in NY for years? Maybe I only moved schools.” He said, being purposely difficult.

Jojo laughed, “Because your accents pretty thick.”

“Like, two weeks ago.” Tommy definitely felt defeated there.

“Wow, that’s fresh, huh?” Jojo smiled at him again.

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“Do you like it here? I mean, I wouldn’t expect you to have formed a solid opinion with only having been here for about two weeks, but…What do you think?”

Tommy felt Jojo’s eager eyes boring into him, wanting some sort of an answer to keep the conversation going – which he obviously thought had been put back on track after a wobbly beginning.

“It’s crowded, the people suck and there’s nothing to do.” Tommy said.

Jojo seemed to ignore the first to things and skipped over to the last one.

“There’s plenty of things to do! There’s so much!” He said enthusiastically.

“Not stuff that _I _like.” Tommy said.

Shit. He’d fallen into Jojo’s plan…keeping the conversation open for longer than it needed to be.

“What do you like to do?”

“Not what you do, clearly.” Tommy mumbled, noticing Jojo’s annotated notes all over his papers.

“Do you like museums? Skating? Reading? Shows? Any sports-“

“Diving. Now shut up.” Tommy said.

Jojo carried on smiling, like he’d earned a point by Tommy actually answering him positively.

“We have a diving team at school, you know. And a lot of other sports too, like football and hockey, and basketball – mind you, you’re probably not tall enough to make much of an impact with scoring – or baseball or the swim team or- “

“I get it. Shut up, you’re distracting me.” Tommy said, hoping the lame excuse would work.

Which it did. Only, it put a guilty look on Jojo’s face that he’d actually kept Tommy from doing his work for this long.

“I’m really sorry.” He said.

Tommy sighed, “Don’t worry about it.”

That seemed to fix it, and Jojo was back to his bubbly self and volunteered to read his analysed text out to the class…And that left Tommy internally groaning as he spoke for what seemed like hours.

* * *

“Still having trouble with your locker?” Mush asked as he passed Romeo.

“Yep.” Romeo said, still trying to jiggle the damn thing open.

He almost jumped out of his skin Tommy banged on the lockers and it managed to unjam his locker, almost sending Romeo backwards as he pulled his locker open with ease with a little too much force.

“Gosh, Tommy!” Romeo breathed out.

“You’re welcome. Can we leave now? I just had the dullest class with the dullest guy.” Tommy said.

Mush looked between the two of them before stepping into the chatter.

“I’m Mush.” He said.

“Good for you.” Tommy replied before turning his attention back on Romeo. “Well?”

Mush narrowed his eyes at him, which Romeo noticed. This wouldn’t go well.

“Ah, Mush, this is Tommy. Tommy, meet Mush.”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “That’s your real name?”

“That’s your approach to people?”

“What?” Tommy gave him a weird look.

Mush just sighed. People like him gave him a headache.

“Okay…” Romeo mumbled. “Anyway…We were gonna head to lunch, if you wanted to join us, Tommy?”

Mush gave Romeo a shocked look, like he was insane for inviting that jackass to sit with them.

Mush interrupted, “You really don’t have to.”

He huffed at the jab in the ribs Romeo sent his way, pouting at his friend for even doing such a thing.

Mush understood that Romeo was like a Labrador because, he just wanted to be friends with everything that moved, and that unfortunately meant he had befriended the new guy – who also happened to be a huge dick…Well, as far as Mush knew anyway. The vibe he gave him, he didn’t want to know more about him

* * *

Tommy felt incredibly awkward sat there with seven pairs of eyes…well, six pairs of eyes and one eyeball staring at him. Why was he wearing an eyepatch, anyway?

“How come you have stitches?” Eyepatch asked.

“Did you get jumped?” Redhead asked.

“Something like that…” Tommy mumbled, casting a side-glance to Romeo, who was shifting in his seat rather uncomfortably – like he’d physically shot somebody.

He might as well have by the headache Tommy had had all last night.

Obviously, Bink and Albert had said something before Romeo had even been able to introduce Tommy to his friends.

“Anyway…” Romeo said. “This is Tommy, he’s-“

“The new guy you were crushing over yesterday lunchtime!” Racetrack cut Romeo off. 

“Oh yeah!” Albert said, grinning at Racer. “Also, the guy that Jojo knew an awful lot about.”

Tommy gave Jojo a weird look down the table, who turned bright red.

“It’s not as weird as it sounds, I promise.” Jojo sputtered out.

Tommy just rolled his eyes, which caused Mush to scoff and Blink turned towards him wondering why he’d just reacted that way.

“What’s your problem?” Tommy snapped at Mush.

“My problem? What’s your-“

“Okay! Anyway!” Romeo put a top on it before their fresh bickering got out of hand.

Mush tended to hold grudges up to long periods of time – usually forever, which wasn’t helpful for his first impression of Tommy.

“Tommy, meet the guys!” Romeo said, grinning excitedly.

Tommy couldn’t have been less enthusiastic. Yeah…Ro understood why Mush got the impression he had gotten. Nobody was getting much from Tommy at all.

“Albert, Race, Finch, Jojo, Blink and Mush…Who you already had the pleasure of meeting.”

“Charmed.” Mush drawled sarcastically.

It was the first time Romeo had seen Tommy ignore somebody. Was it progress? Probably not.

“So…” Blink started.

‘_Ah, eyepatch kid._’ Tommy thought.

“The stitches?”

Tommy shrugged, “He hit me with his car.” Looking at Romeo like something as dramatic as that hadn’t just been spoken out loud.

“What? No way!” Mush laughed, finding it incredibly amusing.

Blink would have glared at his boyfriend if he hadn’t found it just as funny. And turns out, the others also thought it was worth a chuckle – it was a strange scenario to meet someone in. However, Romeo still found it embarrassing that he’d actually done that, and Jojo seemed concerned more than anything.

“Are you okay though?” He asked.

Tommy nodded. “Fine.”

“You must be made of steel!” Race joked, taking a bite of a carrot stick Blink had given to him from his lunch box.

Tommy obviously found that comment a weird thing to say. Mush noticed the look he was giving Racetrack, which Race was too oblivious to notice, and he didn’t like it one bit. It was as if Tommy thought he was better than the rest of them. That just made Mush dislike him even more.

Conversation carried on as usual after that whilst everybody ate their lunch. Of course, Albert and Race were there again with the usual chips and candy. Romeo didn’t think they’d eat a healthy lunch at all this year; maybe they’d made a pact over the summer and placed a bet on who would cave over a sandwich first. It wouldn’t be surprising.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed by Romeo that Tommy was just sat idly eating his pesto pasta, (which looked great and fresh, a note that Race and Al should have taken), and not joining in with anything that was being said across the table. It made Romeo wonder whether that was just what Tommy was like – quiet and reserved, more than happy to just watch things unfold…Or whether he was actually feeling uncomfortable and Romeo had made a mistake in introducing him to so many people at once. He guessed it must be overwhelming.

“I’m sorry.” Romeo said quietly.

“What? You already apologise for hitting me with your trashy car, you don’t have to do it again.” Tommy said back, not as subtly as Romeo would have liked, but nobody took any notice.

“No, I mean for introducing you to everybody.”

“Oh.”

‘Oh’? That’s all Romeo was going to get was an ‘Oh’? Had he upset him by saying that?

“I don’t mean I regret it, I meant that I get that you probably feel out of your depth right now.” Romeo said.

Tommy seemed to take a moment to think about it, and the look on his face made Romeo curious as to what he was going to do – it was clearly a scheming look.

Oh god, he hoped Tommy hadn’t taken that as a challenge to actually talk to the others. That sounded contradicting to what he wanted, but Romeo didn’t want Tommy to be fake…He just wanted the others to like him and see that he wasn’t such a bad person; even though Romeo had only known him for a day, he didn’t think he was an awful guy, just rough around the edges.

“Hey, Finch, right?” Tommy said.

Finch looked up at him from his drawing. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Nothing.” Tommy shrugged. “Nice hoodie.”

“My sweatshirt? You really think so?” Finch said, grinning from the compliment on his maroon sweatshirt with a retro waterfall on the front, the hood strings tied in a bow.

_Oh, this guy was the attention seeking type_, thought Tommy. He’d said something nice, and the guy was scraping for more.

“Yep.” He said. “Looks great. Where’d you get it?” He asked.

Mush had picked up on their conversation, following along whilst he’d been talking to the others.

_Is this guy a label snob? _He thought, just waiting to add that to list of things he hated about Tommy in the span of less than an hour.

“This thrift store near where I live.” Finch said.

_Poor, innocent Finch. _Mush thought to himself. 

“Cool, there’s some good stuff at thrift stores.” Tommy replied.

Well, Mush hadn’t been expecting that…

“I know! I got a pretty good-looking green shirt too.” Finch said.

Tommy couldn’t have been the least bit interested in what he had to say, but if it proved a point to Romeo then he’d take it.

“What’re you drawing, anyway?” He asked.

Finch perked up at that even more, like he couldn’t believe Tommy was actually taking any interest in him. Usually, he was content with not saying anything and just getting lost in his sketch book, but Romeo hadn’t seen him this willing to participate in conversation with somebody they didn’t really know before.

Finch flipped his sketch pad around, showing Tommy what he’d been working on.

“It’s a dragon, basically.” He said. “I’m just practicing skin textures and stuff. What do you think?”

Mush saw this as another opportunity to slot something negativity down about Tommy in his mental list. It was like he’d set up a competition with himself to see how many things he could get in such a short amount of time. So, he held grudges, sue him – the guy was a dick, and he’d prove it to his friends one way or another.

Tommy nodded, “It’s good, great actually.”

Jeez, he wished this conversation would fizzle out soon and Finch would become too interested in his drawings once again. Tommy did admit though, Finch was an amazing drawer from the small glimpse he’d seen, but that didn’t mean he actually gave a shit.

Romeo just sat by, smiling to himself at how Tommy was taking an interest. He took back his earlier thoughts on the conniving expression – maybe that was just how Tommy naturally smiled.

Finch couldn’t have been happier in that moment, and he carried on adding some finishing touches to his skin texture samples. He was planning on doing an A1 drawing based off of Game of Thrones, and it would be an ambitious project, so whatever practice he could get was awesome.

Jojo watched as Finch seemed to have an easy time conversating with Tommy, but for Jojo, it had been like pulling teeth, or like drawing blood from a stone. Any of those similes would have described his earlier conversation with Tommy perfectly. What had he done wrong? Tommy seemed to be fine with everybody else, except him.

“Something wrong, Jo?” Albert asked.

Jojo shook his head, “No, I’m okay.”

Albert seemed content with that answer and carried on throwing some leftover gummy bears from yesterday to Racer, who was trying to catch them in his mouth.


	4. Bickering? Yeah, they do that too.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jojo is a little insecure about Tommy, especially after he seemed to get along with Finch previously. He feels like Tommy doesn't like him, and he can't have that.   
Mush still doesn't like Tommy, and that's made apparent at lunch.  
Albert and Racetrack don't think anything is wrong, and Blink just wants Mush to get along with the new guy.   
Romeo is beginning to think that Mush and Tommy are kind of similar, but he isn't angry about it. Yet.   
Tommy's just fed up and thinks he can do whatever he wants.

Mush dramatically flopped onto his boyfriend’s bed. “You know, I don’t usually hold grudges but-“

“Yes, you do.” Blink mumbled.

“-I just can’t help it this time, Tommy grinds on my nerves like nobody I’ve ever met.”

Blink spun around in his desk chair, his pencil still in hands from the history notes he’d just been taking. “Can you stop talking about Tommy for a minute? We’re supposed to be studying.”

“But I don’t like history though.” Mush said.

That caused Blink to roll his eyes, “That’s why we need to study. Come on, I’ll help you.”

Mush let out a dramatic sigh and got up, wandering over to Blink’s desk and sitting in the beanbag beside his swirly chair.

“Will you let me copy your notes?” He asked.

Blink let out a small laugh, “Yeah, no. I’m not Jojo.”

Mush smiled up at him, perching his arms on the desk, looking awkward due to sinking in the beanbag.

“I love you.” He hummed.

“I love you too.” Blink said.

“Let’s get married.”

“Let’s study history.”

“We’re not even in the same year, Blink. I’ve already studied the stuff you’re doing in your classes.”

Blink didn’t even need to think about it before he said, “Yet, you still don’t know any of it.”

“You’re sassy tonight.”

“And you’re lazy.”

“This is literally the only topic I hate, I’m great at everything else.” Mush whined.

Blink wasn’t having any of it though, and he shoved Mush’s history textbook at him.

“You need to do the exercises I highlighted for you.” He said.

Mush just pouted at him.

“Do you wanna get behind before the years barely started?” Blink said.

Mush sighed in defeat, dramatically getting his notebook and pen, rolling onto the floor from the bean bag and comfortably laying out his work, along with his dignity.

There was a little while of silence as Mush completed the prison sentence that Blink had given him, before the prison guard himself slid off of his desk chair and laid on top of Mush, who huffed out a laugh and stopped writing, leaning his face on the floor as they both just laid there.

“So, what do you think about inviting Tommy with us all to the movies on Saturday?” Blink suggested.

Mush scoffed, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I was just thinking, Romeo seems to get along with him, Finch too – and the others seemed to like him. It’s just you, Mush. Maybe you two just got off on the wrong foot.”

“Romeo only gets along with him because, A) he hit him with his car, so he feels guilty, and B) he thinks he’s hot.” Mush grumbled.

Blink seemed to think about it for a minute before voicing his thoughts; “I mean, I guess. But you know, Ro, he doesn’t put up with just anybody.”

“I suppose.” Mush sighed, again, rather dramatically, before rolling over, forcing Blink to cry out in surprise as he rolled onto the floor.

He scowled at him.

“Oh, don’t give me that look.” Mush said.

Blink continued to glare at him, making Mush look more uneasy by the minute.

“Fine, okay!” Mush gave in. “You can invite Tommy out with us on Saturday, but don’t expect me to become best friends with the guy.”

Blink smiled at him, kissing him briefly before getting up and sitting back at his desk.

“That’s it?” Mush whined.

Blink threw a highlighter at him.

* * *

Finch was spending his evening as he usually would – relaxing at home after a long day at school. Like anybody would, really.

He lived with his grandma and had done for about three years now. Ever since Finch’s dad had left when he was ten, his mom hadn’t coped very well and had put the blame heavily on Finch for her husband leaving. Now, he was sixteen and still confused by all that had happened, but it continued to weigh heavily on him ever since things had begun to spiral out of control.

The reason why he lived with his grandma wasn’t due to a light topic, and it wasn’t one he often spoke about.

His mom had taken to drink ever since Finch’s dad had left, as well as taking to different varieties of men. For the three years where Finch had been subjected to it all, he hadn’t understood why these things had been happening, but they had, and it was clear to him now that those things weren’t what a normal family was like.

However, through it all, his grandma had been there – until she’d gotten custody of him after a particularly bad case.

Finch sighed to himself, laying on his bed feeling quite bored. He’d finished his homework (wow, homework after the first two days back? Predictable) and now he might as well just twiddle his thumbs whilst he waited for sleep to come.

Or…He could do some stalking on Instagram.

Despite his kind of shy personality in the sense that, he wasn’t fond of a lot of people, Finch used his introvert expertise to get to know people in their online lives. It made sense in his head, and it did pass the time.

It wasn’t hard to find Tommy’s account; it was literally just his name and a few numbers – Finch wasn’t surprised by the lack of creativity. His account wasn’t private, which in fact _did_ surprise him because, he would have thought a guy like Tommy wouldn’t care about random people having an insight into his life. However, Finch had never been a good judge of character.

He was looking through his posts, the most recent one having been posted a year ago, which was upsetting to Finch; did Tommy not enjoy moving to New York? He continued to look through, seeing shots of Tommy surfing, some from an aquatics centre, some with an old lady who was always smiling brightly with him. There was a portion which were family orientated, and Finch couldn’t help the jealousy that sprang in his chest because, Tommy appeared to come from a large family full of smiling people around tables having meals and drinks, or at what was probably home, with people just being happy.

Finch had never had that, and yet, it made him want to get to know Tommy more. He’d only met him today, and the conversation they’d had at lunch had left Finch wondering if they could actually become friends. Tommy seemed really cool, and that thought sort of intimidated Finch that maybe Tommy wouldn’t be interested in actually being friends with him, and that he’d be replaced in the group – they were real fears that had started to drown Finch in the short space of this evening.

Tommy had more followers than him, followed less people than him, had a better life than him – but who was Finch to suddenly think that he’d be replaced by the friends he’d known practically his entire life? Everything was happening quickly in his head, that thinking it out loud made his fears sound absolutely ridiculous, and made his friends seem shallow. They weren’t though, they were great.

Finch sighed to himself, following Tommy and wondering if he’d follow him back, or even if he used his social media anymore since his last post had been so long ago. 

Shockingly, Tommy followed him back, and Finch smiled, messaging him – even more so when Tommy messaged him back.

* * *

Jojo was anxious, to say the least. Tommy was sat at the desk he’d seemed to adopt as his own for English, and Jojo didn’t know what to say to him. This was mostly because, he’d been shut down anytime he’d tried to spark of a conversation with him.

As soon as the teacher set another independent task, Jojo looked across at Tommy once more, biting his lip as he thought of what to say.

“You’re staring.” Tommy said, not even looking at Jojo as he actually wrote something for a change.

Tommy wasn’t one for focussing on schoolwork, he clearly had his head elsewhere with things he found more useful – like the next episode of Blue Planet, or what his mom would be cooking for dinner that evening. But he also found it difficult to speak to people, especially people he’d only known for a few days. He wasn’t shy, he just called it being uninterested – that, and he hoped he wouldn’t even be here for that long, despite knowing that the reason they’d moved countries in the first place was because his parents business had expanded, and they were of more use here than back in Sydney, unfortunately.

He supposed it could have been worse though. At least his parents were increasing their success, and not in any financial trouble or had any worries. Well, Tommy supposed their only worry was him – like usual.

“I’m not.” Jojo said. “What’re you up to?”

“The task.” Tommy replied.

Jojo blushed with embarrassment, having realised that that had been a stupid question.

“Your heads looking a little better.” He pointed out rather casually for somebody who felt like they’d been caught in the headlights.

Tommy hummed in agreement before sitting up and looking at Jojo.

“What do you want?”

“Nothing. I just-“ Jojo winced at the bruises that had formed around the stitches on Tommy’s forehead. “I take back my earlier statement, you look awful.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow at him, and Jojo was about the take _that _back too, but Tommy smirked at him.

“Gee, thanks.” He said.

Jojo felt butterflies in his stomach at the excitement of maybe having the chance at having a proper conversation with Tommy that wasn’t just half-assed responses. He’d been thinking about it all last night; why didn’t Tommy like him?

“Have I done something wrong?” Jojo blurted out.

There goes being subtle.

“What?” Tommy frowned at him.

“I just-“

“I don’t even know you, mate. Like, at all.”

Jojo nodded. “Yeah, I guess. But it’s just that, you get along with the others more than me and-“  
“I’ve spoken to them once at lunch yesterday.”

“You’ve spoken to Romeo more than once.”

“He hit me with his car; the guy just feels guilty. He’ll be back to doting upon you in no time.” Tommy said, rolling his eyes.

“No, that’s not what I meant!” Jojo defended, now feeling bad for bringing it up. “I want you to hang out with us, and I’m sure Romeo actually wants you to be his friend, he’s not hanging out with you because he’s guilty-“

“Who said we were hanging out?”

Jojo inwardly cringed. He just kept saying things that Tommy obviously didn’t want to hear.

“Well, he introduced you to us all, so I assumed you were hanging out. Now, I know that Mush probably isn’t too keen on you, but Finch definitely is, which he isn’t usually around people like you to be honest-“

“People like me?”

“Yeah, you know, not necessarily into classes and stuff-“

“So, you’re saying I’m stupid?”

“No!” Jojo sighed, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“What’s your problem, anyway?” Tommy asked.

Jojo shrugged his shoulders in defeat. “I guess I just wanna be your friend, alright? But you’re just…difficult. That’s all.”

“Then why didn’t you just say that instead of sprouting all of that other shit?”

“I’m not that good, I guess.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Tommy said.

He pretended like what Jojo said hadn’t stung. He knew that he wasn’t that easy to talk to, and maybe he shouldn’t have been defensive towards him every time Jojo tried to talk to him, but he wasn’t in a great mood, and he probably wouldn’t be for quite some time. Besides, he did find Jojo irritating, and he clearly had some issues of his own that made his insecure as fuck – and that irritated Tommy to no end. _Just get a grip_.

“Tommy, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have said any of that, I don’t even know why I brought it up.” Jojo said.

Tommy sighed. He had hoped that Jojo would have just dropped it. “I’m not gonna go and cry about it. I’m not you.”

Jojo looked at him sadly and Tommy ignored him for the rest of the lesson whilst Jojo moped upon his work.

* * *

“Hey, Tommy.” Finch greeted him when he saw him leaving class. “How are things?”

Tommy made a ‘so-so’ motion with his hand, and Finch couldn’t help but smile at the simplicity of it.

Finch had spent most of the yesterday evening talking to Tommy; mostly about random things and explaining to Tommy what Queer Eye was and sending him vine compilations. What he got from their conversation was that, Tommy wasn’t very tech savvy and that he’d been living under a rock for most of his life. He didn’t know who John Mulaney was.

“What’re you doing for lunch?” Tommy asked.

“The same as usual. I was gonna go and sit with the others. Why?”

“You wanna go somewhere else?”

“Like where?” Finch didn’t exactly have any extra money on him right now, but he’d amuse Tommy by asking anyway.

“Back to mine? I can’t be bothered with the rest of my classes.”

That astonished Finch, and paused in the hallway, other students walking around him. 

“It’s your senior year, Tommy. You can’t be serious about ditching, right?”

Tommy seemed to think about it for a moment, before answering Finch confidently; “It’s not the end of the world. It’s just half a day.”

“Yeah, but it’s still an unexplained absence. My gran will get worried.” Finch said. “Won’t your folks get worried?”

“No. They’ll know where I am – at home. It’s not a big deal.”

“They let you skip?” Finch asked.

Tommy’s parents hated him skipping. He used to do it at his old school, and with little motivation now, they expected him to do it here. In fact, they were probably surprised he’d gone this long. Just because they knew he did it, didn’t mean they liked it. When he mentioned earlier that they worried about him, they did, for these reasons. He wasn’t the golden child that his sister was.

“Not exactly, but they’ll know where I am.” He shrugged.

Finch was still hesitant.

“I could just ask Romeo.”

“He’d say no.” Finch added.

Tommy nodded, “Touché.”

They both stood there for a minute longer before Tommy decided to turn on his heel and start the short walk to the main exit.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!” Finch hurried after him.

He liked talking to Tommy, and if it meant skipping to get to know him, then he’d do it.

* * *

Romeo had found the lack of Tommy at the lunch table odd, to say he hadn’t known him that long. His brooding presence was surely to be missed – by him, anyway.

“Where’s Finch?” He asked, knowing that would get an answer rather than asking where Tommy was.

“With Tommy.” Jojo said, rather unimpressed.

Mush, having heard that, put down his sandwich with distaste. “Why?”

“I dunno.” Jojo shrugged.

“Quit moping, Jo, I’m sure they’re fine.” Albert said.

“I’m not worried about that.”

“About what? Finch and Tommy hanging out? Or Finch getting to know Tommy and show him the wonderous sights of the city before you can, Jo?” Racetrack teased, his tone light.

However, Jojo wasn’t in the mood for joking around about that right now, but Racetrack was oblivious to his glum face, and carried on chatting with Albert about the creation of candy floss. Sometimes, even they wondered how they reached their random conversation topics.

“Are they skipping?” Mush asked.

Everyone looked at Jojo, waiting for an answer.

Jojo didn’t answer them, just burying his head back in his book.

“Jo?” Blink said.

Jojo sighed, putting his book down again, not even getting past the sentence he’d been reading. “I don’t know what they’re doing. I just saw them together after class earlier.”

“Sooo, they’re skipping.” Mush said. “Brilliant. He’s a dick and a bad influence.”

“Who?” Romeo asked.

“Tommy, obviously.”

“Hey, that’s not fair. You’ve known him for like, two days, Mush.” Romeo looked at his friend, expecting him to take it back.

“Dude, you’re kidding me, right? You hit him with your car, you’re obviously still in shock, otherwise you’d be as wise about him as I am.” Mush said, laughing a little.

Blink elbowed him in the side.

Romeo would never argue with Mush, but sometimes, his friend was a little more big headed about things that he meant to be. But that was just Mush, and Romeo was already starting to see some similarities between him and Tommy, and he’d known Mush for years to understand that the slight egotistical side of him struggled to see that maybe he was wrong sometimes.

“You saw how he spoke to me when we first met, he’s not the nicest guy around, Ro. Just think about it.” Mush dropped the small joking act, “And you’ve known him for what? Twenty-four hours longer than we have.”

They each looked at each other, Race and Albert having caught up on the conversation, both of them confused. They hadn’t seen an issue with anything, and really, they gave each other a look that clearly said that they didn’t see the big deal.

“Mush, don’t you think you’re being a bit dramatic?” Albert said. “I mean, Tommy doesn’t seem that bad.”

“Right. What if we invite him to the movies this weekend? That’ll change your mind.” Racetrack suggested.

Blink looked at Mush, knowing the conversation that they’d had yesterday after school. Mush didn’t look too impressed.

“I don’t see a problem with that.” Blink said.

“I do.” Mush grumbled.

Romeo didn’t say anything to that, he just sat by without a word, picking at the lettuce on the edge of his turkey sandwich.

The table sat in an awkward silence, everyone looking at Mush, waiting for him to crack.

Five, four, three, two…

“Fine! Alright. We can invite him.” Mush sighed, crossing his arms with a scowl.

Romeo couldn’t help but smile a little. Mush wasn’t as tough as he made out to be, and most of the time, his stubborn persona was just a façade.

“And for the record, Mush, just because I hit him with my car, doesn’t mean I don’t actually want to be his friend.”

“No, you just want to marry him and have two and a half kids and a white picket fence.” Racetrack laughed.

Romeo whacked him upside the head; “I mentioned him being cute once!”

“And then you hit him with your car.” Albert said.

“Yeah, and he got those stitches. Frankenstein kink?” Race pondered aloud.

“Ah, that’s gotta be it.” Albert nodded.

Romeo glared at them both. “You two are the literal worst.”

“So, it’s settled then? Tommy’s coming to hang out with us this weekend. Mission ‘get Mush to befriend him’ is a go.” Blink said.

Mush didn’t have time to protest before everybody was ageing – well, except him and Jojo.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Mush asked, keeping his voice quiet.

Jojo nodded, “Finch’s grans gonna kill him for skipping.”

“That’s…not what I was thinking. I was gonna say that, I’m gonna play sick this weekend if you wanna join me?”

“Oh, right.” Jojo smiled, “Yeah, I’m in.”

He’d rather that than watch Finch and Tommy bond over god knows what.


	5. A glass of juice to settle the vibe.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finch goes to Tommy's house, and he starts trying to piece together what Tommy is actually like. Whilst Tommy is having an internal dilemma about what he actually is like, and opening up past experiences that he probably should elaborate on at some point.  
Romeo just wants Mush to get along with Tommy, but Romeo isn't even sure if he gets along with Tommy - however, he decides not to even voice this.

Finch hadn’t known what to expect when he got to Tommy’s house. He had spent the bus journey (it surprised him that Tommy was using public transport – he thought he would’ve had a car) wondering what Tommy’s house would look like, and what area he’d live in. It turned out that the end product of his theories wasn’t too far off from his expectations.

Tommy lived in one of the nicest areas, in fact, Finch recognised the area – it wasn’t too far from Mush’s house, but the houses here were of an entirely different style than the area Mush lived.

Where Mush’s place was more modern looking, Tommy’s looked homely. What else could Finch have expected in the end? This house looked like a place where a moderately big family would gather during the holidays, despite Tommy not having lived here long enough at all to make those fond memories just yet. But Finch had seen it plastered on his Instagram, so it would most likely eventually be true.

There were no cars on the driveway, which Finch guessed fit at least three, depending on the size and expert parking skills of each individual.

The bay windows were nice, and Finch suddenly felt as if he wasn’t worthy enough to enter a house such as this, but before he could voice that thought any further, Tommy had already opened the door and was stepping through. Finch followed him inside.

It was pretty bare inside, like they hadn’t had time to actually live in the place yet.

“Sorry about the mess, we’ve got boxes coming out of our ears.” Tommy said.

Finch furrowed his face in confusion. If he’d learned another thing, it was that Tommy’s phrasing of things was quite odd, to say the least.

“What?” Finch said it as if he hadn’t heard him the first time.

Tommy looked up at him as he slid his shoes off. “We’ve got boxes everywhere, haven’t had time to unpack everything yet.”

Finch nodded, taking his own shoes off and leaving them neatly aligned with the hallway wall, but not touching. He followed Tommy through an archway into the kitchen.

It was pristine, except for the boxes that covered most of the island and table surfaces, along with discarded newspaper bits and bubble wrap.

“Juice?” Tommy asked, holding up an apple juice carton he’d gotten from the fridge.

“Sure. Thanks.” Finch replied.

This room had a lot of light in it, and Finch wondered if the rest of the house was this bright with the sun shining through the windows. The natural light was nice.

“You gonna carry your bag around all day?” Tommy said, smirking at him.

Finch blushed with embarrassment, sliding his backpack off of his shoulder and letting it rest on the floor, propped up against the island.

He grabbed his glass of juice and took a sip.

“I like how you aren’t shielding this place away, what with all the boxes and all.” Finch said.

Tommy only shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. If it’s good enough for me to live in, it’s good enough for people to come over. Besides, things are still in boxes, so it’s not really properly messy.”

Finch supposed he had a point. For all he knew, Tommy and his family could be incredibly messy – not that it made any difference to anything.

“So…” Finch started. “Why did you wanna skip?”

Tommy raised his eyebrow at him, “Any particular reason you’re asking?”

Finch felt caught off guard, suddenly finding his glass of juice very interesting.

Tommy laughed at him. “I’m just messin’.” Whatever that meant. “Like I said, I just couldn’t be bothered with the rest of the day.” Shrugging after, then downing the rest of his juice.

Finch watched as he got more. With the amount he’d drank, Finch wondered why he hadn’t just drunk straight out of the carton itself.

There was an awkward silence, but with the way Tommy busied himself getting food out of the fridge and munching as he made himself a sandwich, Finch guessed that he was oblivious to it; or he just ignored it. Or perhaps it was just Finch himself that was the problem, so he relaxed his shoulders.

Tommy hummed with satisfaction as he took a bite out of his now made sandwich – which was a wonder how it had gotten finished since Tommy had been snacking on most of the ingredients.

He ate an extra slice of ham from the packet, which Finch shook his head at in amusement.

“What?” Tommy said.

“Nothing. You just would have thought you had enough on your sandwich.” Finch smiled at him.

Tommy rolled his eyes, but Finch wasn’t put off by it because, Tommy just ate another slice of the deli meat, humming as he chewed.

“You wanna watch TV or something?” He asked.

Finch was in the middle of getting his own lunch box out of his bag, leaning back up to answer Tommy, lunch box and packet of chips in hand. “Would it be okay to eat in the living room?” He asked.

Tommy huffed at him. “Yeah, it’s fine. Who doesn’t eat in their own living room?”

Finch smiled sheepishly. “Uh, my Gran is a little funny about it – even though we have cats that get their hair everywhere, she hates crumbs.” He felt a little stupid now. “Just thought I’d ask.”

Tommy didn’t take any notice of him as he made his way out of the kitchen and into the living room.

It was open planned with large windows and a set of folding doors that lead out into the small garden. Finch liked how spacious it was, spotting a chandelier that peered down above the dining table and hung from the ceiling upstairs, dangling through an opening that made him curious.

A house with a hole in the floor? It sounded dumb, but Finch thought that architectural design wasn’t that great, though it did look good.

Tommy flopped himself onto one of the three-seat couches, and Finch sat himself down on the same one. It was nice that Tommy was comfortable enough in his company that he just stretched out, grabbing the TV remote and switching it on, scrolling through channels.

Finch only wished he could act the same. Though, this was Tommy’s house, so maybe that had something to do with his current laid-back personality.

It wasn’t even that any of this mattered; not how Finch viewed the house, and not how Finch viewed Tommy – it was really just something for him to focus on, rather than the fact that he was skipping classes to hang out with a boy he’d just met out of genuine curiosity.

“We have Netflix; weren’t you saying something about eyes being queer?” Tommy said, disturbing Finch from his thoughts.

Finch frowned at him. “Queer Eye.”

“That’s the one.”

The frown on Finch’s face disappeared as soon as it had appeared. He’d thought that Tommy was making fun of him, but in reality, he’d actually forgotten then name of Finch’s favourite show, despite having said all of the pieces. But that didn’t matter either because, as Tommy put an episode on (having typed out the words rather slowly – like an old man only just having discovered technology) Finch began relaxing into his surroundings more.

He caught Tommy huffing out a laugh at a moment or two, and Finch felt his stomach flurry at the sight.

* * *

“I don’t like him, Ro.” Mush said.

“But why? Because he was off with you that one time?” Romeo argued back.

Romeo’s gym class had teamed up with Mush’s for this period. He was just thankful that they were focussing on fitness and not an actual game, since it gave Romeo an opportunity to crack the case.

“No.” Mush said as he sat up from having been doing sit ups. “Because he’s obviously a dick.”

“You barely know him.”

“Neither do you, yet you’re so quick to defend him.”

Romeo sighed, “Just give me more than one reason why you don’t want Tommy being in our group.”

“Then you’ll drop it?” Mush asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll drop it.”

“Fine.” Mush started. “Because when he introduced himself to me, he was rude about it-“

“You just said it had nothing to do with that time-“

“I said it wasn’t _just _because of that. It’s one of the reasons.” Mush carried on. “He’s clearly not interested in being here, AND he wanted you to skip with him the other day, and what does he do today? Get Finch to skip with him. Which, by the way, strikes me as a red alert in the code of friendship.”

Romeo’s face scrunched in confusion. “What does that even mean?”

“It _means _that I find it weird that Tommy took quick interest in Finch when you introduced him to us all.”

“Yeah…I guess.” Romeo shrugged. “I think he took it as a challenge.”

Now Mush was confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he looked uncomfortable at lunch yesterday, so I said I was sorry for introducing him to everyone that fast.”

“And then?”

“And then he started talking to Finch like there was no tomorrow.”

“Which Finch obviously thought it was Tommy actually wanting to be friends with him. Poor fella. You should tell him.”

“What?” Romeo said.

“You should tell Finch that Tommy is just using him as a way to one up you for being considerate about his feelings.” Mush said. “See, I told you he was a dick.”

“He’s not-“

“And he’s making Jo grouchy because, he’s jealous that A) Tommy hasn’t clung to his side like most of the new kids do, and B) that Finch is hanging out with Tommy.”

“Jojo’s crush on Finch has nothing to do with your theory that Tommy is the bad guy.” Romeo said.

Mush nodded, agreeing that that was actually correct, but he didn’t take it back.

Romeo sighed, “Fine, I suppose Tommy is a bit rough around the edges, but that doesn’t mean you should give him a hard time. He has just moved halfway across the world, after all – that would take a toll on anybody. Maybe he just wants to get to know Finch for now, and then he’ll come and give you a chance. You just need to be more open to that.”

Mush couldn’t shut Ro down now because, he was making complete sense. He just didn’t want Finch getting hurt somewhere down the line when…_if _it came apparent that Tommy was in fact just proving to Romeo that he wasn’t out of his depth at all. And personalities like that had no place in Finch’s life, or any of their lives.

Mush wouldn’t make the time of day people with ulterior motives.

“Just promise me _you’ll _invite him with us this weekend, and not Blink or Racer, or anybody else. You.” Romeo said.

Mush didn’t answer him for a few seconds, his face contorting in an ‘umming and arring’ motion, trying to decide if he actually wanted to do that – which he didn’t. But when Romeo asked him to promise him, it always made him crumble.

“Fine, alright. I’ll ask Tommy Boy to come with us this weekend.” Mush finally said.

“I don’t think he’ll take kindly to that nickname.”

“I don’t care what he thinks, it’s as good as it’s going to get.”

Romeo shook his head fondly, having made a breakthrough, he was just ready for the pettiness to end.

* * *

School had finished now, and Finch and Tommy had gotten through quite a few episodes of Queer Eye, and they were now watching Jurassic Park – which Tommy had promised him, would not disappoint.

Finch pretended like he’d never seen it before, just to watch Tommy’s face light up as he told him numerous facts about it.

This was definitely a different side of him, and Finch was no longer regretting skipping because, it was obvious to him that Tommy had just wanted somebody to hang out with to let lose for a while – and it was perhaps what Finch needed too, despite school only having just started since Summer had ended.

“So, how did Romeo hit you with his car?” He asked once Tommy had finished a rant about how Jeff Goldblum was one of the greatest men alive. Finch agreed with that statement.

Tommy looked at him, the popcorn bowl resting on his lap. “He backed out without looking. But I mean, I wasn’t looking where I was going either, so.” He shrugged.

“Doesn’t mean it’s entirely your fault.”

“I never said that. Romeo can continue grovelling until the end of the Earth.”

Finch laughed at that; “So, a long time then?”

“Yup.”

The silences in between their conversations were nice, and not the awkward ones that Finch usually encountered.

“It must be hard for you, huh?” Finch said.

“What?”

“Moving to a new country, starting a new school in your last year…Having to make new friends. I don’t think I could do it.”

Tommy didn’t know what to say to that exactly…He wasn’t the type of guy that just said how he was feeling at the drop of a hat – not like Finch so clearly did.

He usually found people’s oversharing too annoying, and he always classed it as attention seeking, and that’s not what Tommy was like at all. He constantly had walls built up around him, and it made him defensive and hard to read. That’s what his old therapist said anyway – but obviously he’d packed that in too before it had even had an impact on the way he thought about things. The feelings thing, he just didn’t speak about stuff.

It drove his parents mad, and now, they just tended not to ask about things.

But with Finch, sat in front of him now, it made him think that somebody so innocent had him actually relaxing for a change rather than thinking about how much pressure was on his shoulders to impress his parents – it was why he acted out a lot, why he just rebelled against everything anybody said to him. He was a bit of a mess honestly, and the way he thought about things left him going around in circles about each topic he ever thought of.

Tommy just pretended not to care about anything nowadays – it made it easier to deal with.

“I bet you could.” Tommy said. _I bet you’d handle it better than I ever could_, he thought.

Finch smiled at him, and Tommy felt like he wasn’t in control of the situation anymore; that if Finch asked him to do anything, he’d do it, just so he wouldn’t upset him.

He barely even knew the guy, but he was the first person here that Tommy didn’t feel forced to sit near. Finch hadn’t introduced him to people that he couldn’t give a shit about, neither had he hit him with his car, if he even had a car.

“Do you have a car?” Tommy asked.

Finch thought that was rather out of the blue. “No, I don’t.” He said, feeling embarrassed that he didn’t even have a car, whilst Tommy lived in this expensive house in a rich zip code area.

“Neither do I.” Tommy said.

“I could have guessed that, since we took the bus here.”

“Div.” Tommy grumbled.

“What?” Finch guessed that he’d be forever guessing when in Tommy’s company, and he didn’t even mind. 


	6. Grapes to go with the juice.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finch and Tommy just talk some more, and Tommy comes to the conclusion that he actually likes this guy's company.

They’d been hanging out for a while, and the longer time went on, the more Finch felt like he was becoming friends with Tommy.

They talked about stupid stuff and just laughed about random things, and this is what Finch realised he had needed after a rather uneventful summer. Of course, he had hung out with his friends quite a bit, but he could only do so much with them since they also had lives. For example; Jojo worked as a camp counsellor at a Summer Camp about a five-hour car journey from the city, Albert worked a lot, and when Finch himself wasn’t free, he was helping out his Aunty at her café. Life clearly wasn’t just full galivanting to new places and having endless journeys with friends – it was hard work.

Finch liked how Tommy didn’t really question anything he said; like when he mentioned his Gran, Tommy hadn’t bat an eyelid or asked about whether he lived with his parents or not, or where they were, or begged to know the details about Finch’s fucked up family life. He was just neutral about it all, and Finch realised that Tommy probably couldn’t care less about where he was from. He came to the conclusion that, whatever Mush was annoyed at Tommy for, it didn’t exist because, Tommy wasn’t hard to get along with at all. Sure, he was confusing and snapped back about things that didn’t matter in the end, but he wasn’t overbearing or harsh – not really. Finch had known worse people in his life, and Tommy was far from that. He honestly couldn’t see why Mush was indifferent to him.

“Do you like grapes?” Tommy asked.

Finch drew his attention away from the tv, smiling at Tommy. “Uh, yeah, I do.” He said.

It was yet another random question that Finch found kind of cute to say that Tommy had such a hard face.

“You want some? My mom bought some the other day.” Tommy said.

Finch nodded and watched as Tommy hopped over the back of the couch and went down the hall and into the kitchen.

He had done that so swiftly that Finch knew that if he had done it, he’d have fallen flat on his face.

“They’re red.” Tommy said as he came back into the living room with a bowl.

He placed them onto the coffee table just in front of the couch they were sitting on.

“You’re very random.” Finch said.

Tommy quirked an eyebrow at him, like he did at most things Finch had said today, like he expected him to elaborate on what he had just said. He never did though, he just always waited for Tommy to answer him – that’s how all of his thoughts and queries worked.

“I mean, I guess?” Tommy said, rather unsure of himself. “I just wanted grapes. Help yourself.”

He had his own little bunch in his hand, enjoying quietly snacking on them as Finch’s choice of movie (Pitch Perfect) played.

There was clearly a difference in taste, since Finch preferred upbeat comedies, musicals or romantic movies and the one-off reality tv series – whereas Tommy would much rather watch an action movie, preferably a Steven Spielberg one, which Finch had gathered by now.

“So…” Finch started, deciding it was that time again, “What do you do when you’re not skipping classes?”

“That would be…actually go to class.” Tommy answered cleverly.

Finch rolled his eyes, “No, you dumbass-“

“I’m the dumbass? You’re the one who skipped with me.” Tommy interrupted.

Finch didn’t even acknowledge that, having the confidence now after hanging out for so long that it didn’t even matter.

“Yeah, you dumbass. I meant; do you do anything other than eat grapes?” He asked, rephrasing his question.

“Yeah, eating everything else because, food is great.” Tommy said.

“Tommy.” Finch whined.

Tommy just laughed at him. “Okay, okay.” He said.

Finch waited patiently as Tommy ran a hand through his own hair, thinking of what to say.

“I used to be on a diving team back home.” Tommy shrugged, not knowing what Finch wanted to hear.

“That’s cool.” Finch nodded to himself, feeling like the conversation had been shut down just like that, but then Tommy actually carried on.

“I started when I was like…6.” He said. “I think so, anyway.”

“You think?”

“Well, yeah, I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember.”

“Are you gonna join the school’s diving team?” Finch asked. “I think that’d be pretty cool.”

Tommy found it odd that Finch was more excited about something like that than he had been for a long time. 

He was feeling lost, after all, he’d left everything he had ever known, and he was expected to re-start like it was easy. He had barely even thought about if he’d take up diving again in a new place – his parents had brought it up more times than he could count, and he still hadn’t reached an answer.

“I’m not sure.” Tommy said, like it was as simple as that.

“Aww, but I’d love to come and watch!” Finch said.

They both looked at each other a little differently after that, and Finch suddenly felt like he’d overstepped when Tommy didn’t answer as enthusiastically as he did straight away.

“I mean…” Finch started, “I just…If you wanted that, it would be cool.”

He honestly felt like sinking into the couch; he’d pay it to swallow him whole right about now.

It wasn’t that Tommy hadn’t thought about it. Since the tour he’d been on at the school, he’d seen the facilities, he’d thought about how good it felt to just jump off of a high height with a skill that not many people had the guts to do – but that was all he’d done, he’d _only _thought about it, and then he’d purposely forgotten about it.

He wasn’t quite sure why either, it wasn’t like the sport had done anything against him, or even made his life a living hell. He was just tired.

“Don’t worry about it.” Tommy said rather dejectedly.

Finch bit his lip anxiously, wondering how their fun had been deflated with one topic. Obviously, there was something there that Tommy wasn’t telling him, and he wasn’t going to overstep another line.

“What about you?” Tommy asked.

The question had dug itself out of the blue, and Finch almost hadn’t caught it.

“Uh, I dunno exactly.” He said, “I don’t anything as incredible as diving, that’s for sure.”

And that was what Tommy hated about it all. He’d gotten so good at the sport so quickly that he’d just carried on progressing at a young age – and whilst some of his friends back home were still having fun trying out new things and learning, Tommy felt like he was stuck. He felt like he had nothing else to grow on.

Finch cleared his throat awkwardly. “I draw, as you saw…”

“Don’t say it like it’s something boring.” Tommy said; “I think drawing is pretty cool. I mean, I can’t do it, so.” He shrugged.

Finch felt like they were back on track. “So, you only think the things that you can’t do are cool?” He joked.

Tommy mulled over that in his head, and he thought it was pretty accurate, all things considered.

“No.” He huffed, “Only some things I _can’t _do are _cool_.”

“Oh, really?” Finch laughed at him.

Now, in the beginning (_like, yesterday_) Tommy had only been pretending to be interested in what Finch was about because, Romeo’s words had made him feel like he had to take on the challenge of actually talking to people. Tommy wasn’t a sociable person in general, but he had had nothing better to do at the time; but now, just hanging out with Finch in a place where Tommy didn’t have to pretend that he was interested in things he didn’t care about, it suddenly wasn’t pretend anymore.

“Yeah, really.” Tommy said.

Finch felt his face heat up at how Tommy wasn’t suddenly looking at him like everything was different. He was smiling back at him, and it appeared so carefree that Finch wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with this new information.

The two of them seemed stuck for a moment on what to say next, but the silence drifting over the sound of the tv was the most comfortable that either of them had felt in a long time.

“Oh crap.” Finch cursed when his digital watch beeped. It was already five o clock. “My gran is gonna kill me!”

He hopped up of the couch, racing back into the kitchen to get his stuff, Tommy following after him.

“Thanks so much, Tommy, for having me. It’s actually been really fun, you know, despite the impending doom of skipping classes…” Finch said, hurriedly putting his shoes on.

“Right.” Was all Tommy said.

Finch was in too much of a rush to notice the rather confused expression on Tommy’s face at what all of the fuss was about.

“Do you know the way back?” He asked.

Finch nodded as he opened the front door himself, “Yeah, I got it, thanks. I’ll see you at school tomorrow, okay?”

And he didn’t wait for an answer as he dashed down the driveway, almost running into a girl who was getting out of her car, and then he was out of sight. Tommy was just left stood at the doorway without having said goodbye.

It was weird that he had only just began to understand that he and Finch could actually be friends, and that he didn’t mind it – but then he was all over the place and gone in the blink of an eye.

“Who was that?” Ross asked as she walked up to the door, the stranger having startled her.

“Uh, Finch.” Tommy answered.

“Finch? Like the bird?”

“Yes. Finch like the bird.” Tommy praised his confidence on that sentence when really, he had no idea what Finch was named after, or even if that was his real name.

“Okay…” Ross said, “Are you gonna let me into the house, or are you just gonna stand there?”

“Shut up.” And Tommy stepped aside, closing the door behind them.


	7. Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blink persuades Mush to ask Tommy out with them this weekend.   
Tommy and Ross fight a little.

Something like this didn’t mean the end of the fucking world, but to Mush, this literally was the end of the fucking world right now.

“Stop being dramatic.” Blink said, watching his boyfriend pace up and down his bedroom.

“I’m not being _dramatic_.” Mush whined back.

He flopped onto Blink’s bed, grabbing one of the pillows and putting it over his face.

Blink rolled his eyes, getting up from his desk and sitting down next to him, grabbing the pillow and tugging it away.

“Come on, let me hide away.” Mush said.

“The only reason you want to hide is because, Romeo made you promise you’d ask him out.” Blink said.

“Don’t make it seem like I’m asking the guy to join _us _on a date!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Blink laughed, enjoying the grossed-out look on Mush’s face.

Mush glared at him, playfully pushing Blink over onto the bed and proceeding to cuddle up next to him. Blink sighed and stroked his hair as he spoke.

“I really don’t see the big deal, Mushy. Ro just wants everybody to get along, and you’re the big piece to that. You’ve just gotta let it go, Tommy isn’t that bad.”

“How would you know?” Mush asked. “You’ve had less conversations with him than I have, and I’ve barely had conversations with him.”

“Exactly, Mushy.” Blink said, “You don’t even know him, so just give him a shot. Bite your pride in the ass and invite him.”

Mush looked up at him, rather astonished. “Blink, who knew you were capable of such language.”

“I said ‘ass’.” Blink mumbled.

“Ooo, okay.” Mush teased.

Blink didn’t answer him, he just carried on holding Mush close to him, being the rock in more ways than one because, this surely wasn’t just about Tommy, there was always something more in play with Mush, and Blink knew that all that he needed was time before he’d tell him what was really bugging him. It was just a coincidence that Tommy had come along when he had.

“Just ask him?” Blink said.

“How?” Mush asked, mocking Blink’s desperate tone.

Blink just gave him that look, the one that made Mush do anything he wanted (usually getting him a drink, little things like that), but this seemed bigger.

“You message him? It’s not that hard, Mush. Add him the group chat if it’ll make you feel better.”

“It’ll make Romeo feel better – at least then he’ll actually see me do it.”

“Mush, hey…” Blink sat up, looking down at Mush who held his hand, “You’re a lot more than some promise, no matter how long you’ve known Romeo for…Even if this is about something petty, it’s still important because it’s bothering you.”

Mush leaned up to him, “How come you always have the right thing to say?”

“Because I’m good at history?”

“Funny, I was gonna kiss you but now I’m not so sure…” Mush said, smirking at his boyfriend as he pulled his face away.

“Mush…Come on…” Blink whined, leaning back down to follow him, laughing when Mush flipped them over and peered down at him.

“Better at history?” He said.

Blink blew his hair off of his face, “Messaging Tommy?”

“Boy.”

“What?”

“Ro said that he hates nicknames.” Mush said. “Tommy _Boy_. It’ll get on his nerves perfectly.”

Blink rolled his eyes – “Just kiss me.”

* * *

“So, do you know Finch from school?” Ross asked.

She watched Tommy sat at the kitchen island as she placed down a bowl of pasta in front of him along with one for herself.

“Yep.” Tommy answered her.

“How’s your head?” She asked.

“Fine.”

Ross put her fork down and it clattered against the bowl as she sighed. “Am I gonna get one word answers all evening?”

Tommy shrugged.

“One-word answers and nothing. My favourite.”

“You sound like mum.” Tommy said, eating another fork full of pasta, chewing and then saying; “You know, if she was here.”

“You can’t throw a bitch fit just because she couldn’t hold your hand when you got your head stitched up.”

Tommy put his fork down to, and he didn’t take a beat before getting up and walking out of the kitchen, saying as he did so; “And she won’t be _holding my hand _when I get them out tomorrow either.”

Ross sighed, leaning her head on her hand. It wasn’t the stitches that had either of them in a twist, and she also wasn’t the person to be left at the dinner table.

“Thomas!” She yelled, getting up and following him up to his room, slamming the door open.

“What now?” Tommy groaned.

“Why are you so fucking difficult?” She said, staring at him. “Why can’t you just be happy for once in your life? What is there even to be upset over?” But Tommy didn’t say anything. “So what if mum and dad are constantly working, they do it for you, Tommy! They do it for you so they can pay for your training and keep you up on top where you’ve worked so hard to be, but you’re still a little bitch about everything!”

“What’s the fucking point of them dragging us halfway across the world for their _stupid _business if they’re never even fucking here!”

Ross’ face softened, watching her little brother get just about as angry as she had been mere seconds ago.

“I’m not happy because, I don’t want to be here! Back home all they ever did was work, and they didn’t even need to. They’re fucking loaded, Ross! Absolutely fucking loaded. So why the fuck did they have to drag me out here, hm? Why couldn’t I have just stayed with Gran?”

“This isn’t about money or family time, Tommy.” Ross walked over to his bed, sitting down. “This is about you being scared to get back into the game, and you’re blaming everyone else for it. It’s always been about that.” She watched as Tommy crossed his arms in front of her, waiting for her to go on…daring her. “You need to stop pretending that you aren’t scared to get back into it.”

Tommy had been lying to himself when he had thought about things earlier with Finch – claiming he didn’t know why he didn’t want to get back into diving. Back home, he’d had an accident during a dive that caused him injury to his lower back. It wasn’t bad now, not really, he was just terrified of getting back on the board; not that his parents really understood that. They’d sacrificed so much to get him the best training his whole life, and he felt guilty that he couldn’t even complete the forms his dad had emailed him to join one of the best teams in the city – physio and all. So, at least his injury was still on the table. And maybe that was one of the reasons why he couldn’t let it go because, nobody else could let it go; especially the video that was posted around numerous people’s social medias of him taking a fall that could have been a lot worse if it had been from the ten metre bored. Tommy considered himself lucky.

“Could have been worse…” Tommy said, feeling stupid about it whenever somebody mentioned it. 

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.” Ross reminded him. “You have every right to be scared, but don’t be afraid long enough for it to affect your future.”

Ross went over to Tommy’s desk, opening his laptop – one of the only things that wasn’t still in a box – and she saw it was already on Tommy’s email account, the forms wide open.

“You gonna complete these?”

Tommy went over to her, putting his glasses on.

“You been wearing those at school?”

“Shut up.” He said. “And no. You see that?” Pointing at the top of the application as he read it aloud; “’Thank you for showing interest in applying for our prestigious top league diving school…’ Are you kidding me? I’m not applying to _them_.”

“If not them, then who?”

“Nobody.” Tommy said. “I’m not applying to any diving school.”

“So, you’re just gonna quit?”

Tommy leaned against his desk.

“Dad’s not gonna like that.”

“Neither of them are gonna like it.” Tommy said.

“Yeah well, last time I checked, this family doesn’t quit at anything.” Ross reached onto the floor next to her where a box full of Tommy’s trophies was, picking it up and placing it on the desk as Tommy turned around, looking at her like she was insane.

“Funny how you haven’t unpacked any of these yet.” She said.

“I told you, I’m not getting back into it again for the sake of mum and dad having somewhere to put their money and cure their guilt for not being around as much as they used to.” Tommy said.

“I’m so sick of you feeling sorry for yourself.” Ross rolled her eyes, “Get a grip and stop the pity act. Yes, you’ve had a hard time, but that doesn’t mean you can skip school and be an ass about moving. Get over it, Tommy, we moved to a different country, now make the most of it.” She said, giving him one last look before leaving his room.

Tommy opened the box up, looking inside at everything he’d worked so hard for. What Finch had said earlier made him feel like maybe he should give it another shot, but that didn’t help Tommy get over the fear of training again.

He sat down at his desk, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders as he read over the application forms again and again. Even if he did fill them out and send them, he’d still have to show them that he was worthy of their time to have him on the team, and that thought in itself was terrifying.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he took it out, seeing a message from his dad.

_Dad: Coming home from work now. Hope you’ve sent those applications off. Deadline Monday after this weekend. _

“Fuck me.” Tommy grumbled to himself, sitting down in his desk chair.

His dad wasn’t the worst guy around, he just expected Tommy to be perfect at everything, and he wasn’t. The only thing he was good at was getting perfect scores in competitions, and that was before he’d twisted a little too far and landed straight into the water on his back.

“Fuck my life!” He yelled, hearing Ross shout ‘shut up’ from downstairs. “You shut up.” He mumbled under his breath.

_1 Message Request. _

Tommy frowned, easily ignoring the text from his dad and tap on the message request, seeing it was from no one other than _the _Nicholas Mush Meyers.

“Fucking dick.” Tommy said. He seemed to talk to himself a lot whilst under stress.

_Mush: We’re going to the movies this weekend. Come if you want._

It didn’t seem like much of an invite, and who did he mean by _‘we’_? Tommy didn’t know, but he assumed it was the lunch crew full of people he’d rather not spend his free time talking to; well, except for Finch and maybe Romeo, but only as a last resort. He had the right mind to just leave Mush on read like he did with most people, but he messaged him again.

_Mush: If you don’t come, then you’re a pussy. _

_Tommy: Fuck you. _

_Mush: Perfect. I’ll add you to the group chat. _

And that was how Tommy’s weekend became a living nightmare.


	8. Extra, extra hot!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The movies seems like it isn't the biggest plot of the day anymore, not when real feelings are let out.

The first week of school was over with, and Tommy had finished it with less than 100% attendance and a small scar that was now imbedded in his forehead due to some smartarse and his car. Romeo. Romeo who was supposed to be picking him up in ten minutes in said weapon (_car_) but Tommy was still stuck at his desk trying to think of a way to tell his dad that he wasn’t going to fill out the application. Any of them.

“Morning, buddy.” His dad said, leaning against his bedroom doorway.

Like Tommy had said, his dad wasn’t the worst, he just had big dreams that crushed Tommy a mile underground sometimes.

“Hey.”

“You finished those applications yet?” He asked.

Tommy just looked over at him as he stretched over the back of his chair, not saying a word as he looked at him sheepishly.

“Thomas.”

_Oh boy_.

“I’m in the middle of it.” Tommy said.

“Uh-huh.” His dad leaned in the room a little more. “Is that why you’re busy watching…Deadliest Catch?”

“It’s compulsory…Biology.”

“Yeah, right.”

Tommy grinned at him, and his dad raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed but not angry.

“Just get them done.” His dad said.

“Before or after I go out?” Tommy asked rather cheekily. Asking his dad for things was a lot easier than asking his mum.

His dad huffed out a breath. “After. 6pm. Don’t be late. Your mums cooking dinner and you know what she’s like. And I thought you were leaving at 12? It’s 11:50.”

Tommy nodded, but he didn’t move.

“You better get moving if you wanna meet the boys.” His dad laughed at Tommy now wearing the unimpressed look.

“Shut up.” He grumbled.

His dad walked away down the hall, and Tommy checked his watch, only then hurrying to get dressed out of his pyjamas – he wouldn’t want Romeo bossing him around.

* * *

“And you were gonna be annoyed at me if _I _was late.” Romeo said, looking at Tommy as he got into the car. “I’ve been parked here for twenty minutes.”

Tommy looked over at him, shoving his head jokingly. “Shut up.”

Romeo laughed at him, pushing his hand away. “I’m just sayin’.”

Tommy didn’t say anything more as he just looked at his phone, carrying on watching Deadliest Catch that he’d been watching from his laptop.

“So…” Romeo started. “How’s your head?” He asked.

Tommy looked over at him, raising an eyebrow and pointing at the partial scar that had begun to form rather quickly.

“Ouch…I’m sorry.” Romeo said.

“If I had a dollar for every time you said that this week.” Tommy said. “It’s fine, don’t stress about it. It just means that I can hold it against you for the rest of my life.”

“Aww…” Romeo pouted at him. “I’m gonna know you for the rest of my life?”

Tommy glared at him, not enjoying being ‘one-upped’ by Romeo of all people.

He’d gotten his stitches out the other day, of course, he would have gone by himself since his parents _and _Ross were working – which was the usual…Which he hated.

“Thanks for taking me, by the way.” Tommy said, looking down rather awkwardly.

Romeo had been the one to take him to get his stitches out, which had been pretty helpful. Well, more than helpful. Extremely helpful, actually. Not that he’d needed somebody to “hold his hand” or whatever.

Romeo smiled at him. “It’s no problem at all. It’s the least that I could do, you know, considering…” Motioning at his car.

“Honestly, I spend way too much time in this car.” Tommy huffed.

Romeo didn’t take it personally as he started the car. He’d spent quite a bit of time with Tommy the last half of this week, and he’d found himself being right; that Mush really was just petty and Tommy was actually pretty great.

“What?” Tommy said. “Did you…Did you just say I was ‘_pretty great_’?”

Romeo felt his face heat up. He’d actually said that out loud. “Uh, what?”

Tommy laughed at him, actually laughed; and Romeo, call him cliché, actually thought that was _pretty great_.

“Okay, okay.” Romeo pretended to be annoyed.

“Nah, you fell into that one. Thanks for the ego boost.” Tommy smirked at him.

“Dear lord…You’re the worst” Romeo mumbled.

* * *

Mush had woken up that morning dreading the day ahead. He’d initially been looking forward to seeing the new Deadpool movie with his friends, until he’d had the week from Hell where Tommy was the demon that now plagued his very existence. He’d spoken to his mom about him, but she had just laughed about it and said he got his pettiness from his father. So, she hadn’t been much help, but Mush wasn’t letting any of this go easily.

Mush checked his watch. “They should have been here ten minutes ago.”

The group were waiting for Romeo and Tommy to actually turn up, and the movie was starting in five minutes.

“It’s not like Ro to be late.” Jojo said.

So, Mush and Jojo had actually showed up, despite their conversation at the lunch table a few days ago.

They both shot each other a look.

“Told you Tommy was a bad influence!” Mush said, throwing his hands up.

“Calm down, they’re probably just stuck in traffic.” Blink said.

“Or they pulled over to make out.” Race inputted, wrapping his arms around himself and miming making out with somebody.

Albert laughed at him whilst holding both of their drinks, popcorn tucked underneath his arm.

Mush made an unappealing face. “If _that _ever happened, I’d throw up.”

“Okay, alright.” Blink laughed as he pushed Race a bit. “I don’t want my boyfriend to throw up, he’s holding the popcorn.”

“No, I’m not.” Mush said.

Blink proceeded to grab Racetrack’s popcorn and shove it into his boyfriend’s hands.

“Well, now you are.” He said.

“Okay, I’ll stop.” Race laughed, “I wouldn’t want any harm to come to the popcorn either.”

Jojo smiled at their gimmicks, enjoying his friend’s company. This was how it was supposed to be, without the stress of somebody else coming in and ruining it all. Despite having wanted to befriend Tommy in the first place, he had begun to realise that, perhaps it wasn’t the best idea; especially because of how rude he had been to Mush. So, Jojo had decided to side with Mush over all of this, and he even hoped that Romeo would turn up without Tommy, and say that they had fallen out over something…

“Sorry we’re late!” Romeo said as he rushed over to the group, Tommy following at a slower pace behind him.

_‘Too good to be true.’_ Jojo thought.

“Hey! You made it!” Finch smiled at them, accepting the fist-bump from Tommy.

Jojo huffed to himself – those two had gotten close this week. _‘Whilst Finch’s attendance had dropped.’_

“Oh, goodie.” Mush grumbled, and then louder; “Hey, Ro!” Greeting Romeo and very openly ignoring Tommy’s presence.

Romeo raised an eyebrow at him whilst Tommy smirked beside him. All eyes were on Mush.

He sighed. “Hello, Thomas.”

Tommy’s smirk turned to a glare and he stepped forward, but Romeo put his arm out.

“Play nicely you two.” He said. “Come on, we’ve got a film to see.” And he tugged Tommy along with him.

The others followed, shrugging at Mush as they made their way into the movie.

Jojo stopped next to Mush. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t like him either.”

“I already knew that, Jo.” Mush said. “I just wish the others could see it our way.”

Jojo nodded, agreeing with him. “Come on, we don’t have to hang out with him for long. Just long enough to see if Deadpool 3 is just as good as the other two movies.”

Well, Mush could put up with Tommy for a bit of Ryan Reynolds.

* * *

“What do you mean you haven’t seen the other Deadpool movies!?” Albert couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Tommy shrugged, dipping one of his fries in ketchup. “I just haven’t.”

They group were now sat in a McDonalds across the street from the movie theatre.

Albert frowned at his blunt response. “They’re good though.”

“Still haven’t seen them.”

“Well, you should.”

“I won’t.”

“Why?” Albert asked.

“Because I don’t want to.” Tommy said.

Race butted in. “You didn’t like the movie, T?”

Tommy sighed at the nickname, but he didn’t say anything more about it. After all, he’d been unfortunate enough to have sat next to racetrack during the movie, and he’d been making comments in his ear throughout the _entire _thing, with an array of Thomas abbreviations at the end of said comments. There was no stopping Race now – so Tommy held back his tongue on the topic.

“Not really.” Tommy said, and he ate the fry he’d been holding for too long whilst bickering with Albert.

Racetrack pouted at him. “What movies do you like then?”

Mush sat grumpily next to him, being forced to listen to the conversation whilst Blink and Romeo rambled on to each other about some new musical, and Finch’s eyes sparkled at Tommy and Jojo read his book.

He sucked on the straw of his milkshake.

“I can answer that one.” Finch said.

“I mean…” Tommy shrugged again. “The classics.”

“Jurassic Park isn’t a ‘classic’, Tommy.” Finch said.

“Yes, it is.”

“Not.”

“Is.”

“Not.”

“Fuck off.” Tommy huffed.

Finch playfully shoved bumped shoulders with him. “Nah, you don’t mean it.”

Tommy grumbled something unintelligible, and Jojo looked up from his book, jealousy forming in the pit of his stomach from the way Finch was looking at Tommy.

“I’m gonna throw up.” Mush mumbled.

“Did you say something?” Blink asked genuinely, looking at his boyfriend.

Nope, nothing at all, babe.” Mush answered.

In the midst of all of this, Racetrack had grabbed some ‘extra, extra’ hot sauce from his bag. “So, champs, anyone wanna challenge me to the hot sauce challenge?”

“The what?” Tommy asked.

“Oh man, don’t even ask. It’s awful.” Albert said.

“Just because you lost last time, DaSilva – don’t chicken out. Maybe you can redeem yourself.” And Racetrack stuck out his tongue.

Albert tapped the table. “Nah, I’m out this one.”

Race shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“Well?” Tommy raised an eyebrow in question.

“Okay, so-“ By now, Race had gotten everyone’s attention. “You’ve gotta take a spoon full the world’s hottest sauce and hold it in your mouth for as long as possible without swallowing. You in?”

Everyone watched Tommy carefully.

“I’m if Mush is in.” Tommy said.

“And why would I be stupid enough to try _that_?” Mush said, crossing his arms.

Tommy shrugged his shoulders. “Because if you don’t, then _you’re _a pussy.”

Mush wasn’t having any of this, hating how Tommy had quoted him personally. “Fine. I’m in.”

He traded seats with Albert, sitting next to Racetrack and across from Tommy.

“Anybody else?” Race asked, rummaging around in his bag for some spoons.

Nobody answered.

“Okay, good. Because it looks like I only packed three anyway.”

The game began. Racetrack filled the teaspoons with the sauce, handing them to Tommy and Mush, then pouring some on his own.

“I must warn you; I hold the running record of one whole minute.” He said proudly.

Albert nodded, cringing at the memory before whispering to the none-participants. “It’s true.”

“On the count of three.” Race started. “One…Two…Three!”

They each put their spoon in their mouth, the sauce sliding off and sitting on their tongues, the searing heat hitting their taste buds immediately – the game calling for the last man standing. The others watched on intensely, waiting to see who would crack first.

Albert was timing them on his watch, the seconds ticking by agonisingly slow.

Each boy’s face began colouring, a sheen of sweating wiping over them as each of them looked between each other. Mush gripped the table, trying to hold out for as long as possible…Or just long enough to beat Tommy at least.

Finch kept his eyes on Tommy, a nervous look on his face. Jojo just sat by and read the label on the bottle, feeling just as anxious as Finch looked. This stuff really was hot; hot enough to having quite a large warning label about mouth burns and not to consume more than the recommended dose.

“Uh, Race…This has got to be your dumbest idea yet.” He said.

“Ssh.” Albert whispered as he tapped Jojo on the shoulder, “They’re concentrating.”

Fifteen seconds passed, and Mush quickly reached for a napkin and proceeded to spit out his pick of the sauce, gagging as he did so whilst Blink rubbed his back and handed him his milkshake, and when Mush had downed that, he handed him Jojo’s.

“Hey!” Jojo protested.

“Oh, be quiet, you’re lactose intolerant anyway.”

“Touché.” Jojo grumbled.

Tommy followed almost immediately after, reacting the same as Mush as he held a napkin to his face before tucking his face away into arms.

Racetrack grinned, swallowing the sauce. “Yes! I remain the champion!”

“How did you swallow that!?” Mush asked astonishingly after he’d downed a second shake, wiping at his watering eyes.

Tommy’s head popped up, wiping at his constantly running nose with his napkin, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie.

“You’re fucking insane.” He said.

Race was beaming. “I’ll take that as a compliment, Tomboy!”

“Fuck off.” Tommy said.

Finch patter his back. “At least you beat Mush.”

“I’m hurt, Finch…Taking his side.” Mush had meant it as a joke, but that actually hurt.

Finch looked at him sheepishly.

“Ugh, fuck this.” Mush said, gathering hi stuff and getting up. “See you losers at school.”

They watched him go, and Blink turned to the others as he also got up.

“Sorry guys, he’s been really grouchy lately.” He said.

“Nah, don’t apologise for him, Blinky – it’s fine.” Romeo smiled at him. “Go get your man.”

Blink nodded, waving goodbye as he went after Mush.

“What’s his problem?” Tommy asked, despite having a strong inkling that it was most definitely him.

The others didn’t answer him, and Jojo decided that the silence wasn’t enough for him anymore.

“No offence, Tommy, but you’re actually a dick.” He accused.

“Jo…” Finch looked up at him.

“No. No, you know what? You’re messing everything up, Tommy. You’re awful to Mush, you’re a bad influence on Finch and yes, the only reason why Romeo is taking any interest in you is because he is actually guilty.” Jojo ignored the horrified looks from his friends.

“That isn’t true!” Romeo said. “Tommy, I swear that isn’t true!”

But Tommy just looked at him dejectedly.

“Stop lying, Ro.” Jojo said. “Tommy should have been looking where he was going, right?” And he looked at Tommy.

Jojo wasn’t the least bit intimidating, but Tommy had had enough of feeling out of place this week.

“Right.” He said, and he got up from his seat, pocketing a few more napkins for the aftermath of the hot sauce.

“Tommy, come on, you don’t have to go. We’ll just figure this out. Right, Jojo?” Finch said, holding Tommy’s wrist gently so he wouldn’t go whilst he looked hopefully at Jojo.

“No, not really.” Jojo said.

He felt extremely bad that he was acting this way…This wasn’t like him at all, but he hated how things had turned out this week…And how Tommy had gotten in the way of him and Finch, even if nothing was going on between them.

Tommy snatched his wrist out of Finch’s hand.

He’d expected Romeo to protest more, but he wasn’t saying anything…That hurt a little bit. He thought the two of them were friends, but by the way Romeo was looking down at his lap with a guilty look on his face, he began to realise that that certainly wasn’t true.

“See you guys at school.” He mumbled out quickly, not meaning it at all, as he left the joint.

“Why are you acting like this?” Finch asked, directing it right at Jojo.

Jojo’s hard face immediately deflated, he’d just been trying to stick up for Mush…but so much more had come falling out.

“I don’t know…I’m sorry, guys.” Jojo said.

Racetrack looked at him, “I think you should apologise to Tommy…Not us.” His tone of voice was sympathetic.

“Yeah…” Jojo said sadly. “Probably.”

Romeo had been staring into space, trying to figure what he actually felt. Everybody had been bringing up the guilt trip option, and he was starting to think that convincing his parents to unground him had been a bad idea…He’d said he had befriended the guy he’d hit, and said he’d promised to see the new Deadpool movie with him. Being the mothers that they were, they’d believed him because, Romeo never lied. In reality, Romeo had really wanted to spend more time with Tommy to make up for what he had done…So, maybe Jojo was right…Maybe he was only paying so much attention to Tommy because he was guilty.

And with that thought, that made him the real bad guy at this table.


	9. Seventeen, and you've already conquered the world.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts on the aftermath of a petty day hanging out. However, it goes much deeper for the individual when your problems are more than just petty group arguments.

Of course, what had been expected? The bunch of them to just accept him straight off the bat? Tommy knew he wasn’t easy to get along with, and that his attitude got in the way of a lot of things; but at the end of the day, he was still a teenager, and he had a lot of flaws. So did everybody else, yet he was always the one who suffered for it. Not that he’d ever admit that anything like that bothered him.

“You’re home early.” His dad said as Tommy walked into the kitchen.

He went straight for the fridge, taking out a can of coke.

“You eat well today?”

Tommy mentally sighed - so his dad was in one of those moods. It was the typical ‘you’re an athlete, your life revolves around eating the right things, eating enough of the right things, exercising, sleeping.’ It was a tough regime.

Tommy made a ‘so, so’ motion with his hand, opening the can and taking a swig before answering;

“If you call popcorn and McDonalds good.” He shrugged.

This caused his dad to frown from where he sat at the kitchen table with his laptop in front of him.

It was pristine, like he’d just went out and bought the new Mac, except he’d had the same one for two years and there wasn’t a single scratch on it. Tommy had never been that careful with his own, a trait his dad wasn’t fond of.

Sure, he hated when his dad was in his ‘regime’ mood, but the man was better than any father he could ever ask for. Tommy knew he didn’t have it bad, he just hated that everything in his life revolved around one thing. It made him feel like a robot.

“Have you filled out those applications yet?” His dad asked.

Tommy openly rolled his eyes. “And when do you expect I did that? During the movie? Whilst I was socialising?”

“Thomas.” His dad warned.

“What? If you’re so obsessed with them, you do them. It’s never stopped you before.”

His dad looked at him sternly. “You were younger then - it’s about time you took responsibility for your own future and fill out your own goddamn forms.”

It was never good when it was just the two of them in the house; neither of the women there to be the buffer between them when things got heated.

“Maybe if I wanted to do them, I would have done them already.” Tommy said.

“Well, maybe if you were actually grateful for the sacrifices me and your mother have made, you’d have done them before we even got to New York, like I asked in the first place.”

Their eyes locked from both sides of the kitchen.

When his dad got no answer, he said; “Exactly. Since I can’t trust you to fill them out, you’re gonna sit here and I’m going to watch you fill them out. The last try out slot is tomorrow during school; you’ll have to take the day off.”

That was a positive - missing school was always a positive. But bringing up school in a conversation usually meant the usual lecture of keeping his grades up and being a role model student. Honestly, if his parents didn’t think he was so much of a failure, they’d put their money to good use on private education.

Tommy didn’t care either way. School was school, and he was shit at it no matter the price.

“Fine.” He said. “But don’t expect me to actually get in.”

“And why’s that?” His dad challenged.

Tommy came over to the table, picking up the laptop. “My back fucking hurts.” He said.

“Thomas.” A warning for swearing. His dad then sighed. “You can’t keep using that as an excuse for not doing anything, Tommy.”

Tommy shrugged him off, moving to leave the kitchen.

“Where are you going?”

“To my room. I’m not having you breathing down my neck whilst I sign my life away.”

His dad called after him. “Don’t be so dramatic!”

If only it was that simple.

* * *

Blink had gone with Mush back to his house, now listening to Mush ramble to his mom about how annoying Tommy was.

“-You honestly don’t understand how much of an ass he his, mom. Like, he literally just doesn’t care about anything.”

“Nicholas, you’ve known this boy for the better half of a week, at least.” She said. “You need to stop being so dramatic.”

Blink honestly found it strange when people called Mush by his real name. He found it weird when any of his friends were addressed by their real names.

“Do you want broccoli, Ryan?” Mush’s mom asked him.

Blink nodded, despite her using his real name. “Yes please.”

She passed a plate of steak and veg over to him.

Mush’s dad was working late at the station (he was a detective in a leading firm) whilst his mom had finished her morning shift at the hospital. She was a surgeon, and goddamn good at her job too.

Mush also had an older sister called Chloe, and an older brother called Michael. But they both lived overseas in England with their Aunty, working in some business which Blink actually had no idea what it was - Mush would never tell him, no matter how many times he asked.

“Mom, listen, no matter how little I’ve known Tommy Boy-“

“If he ever hears you call him that, he’s not gonna be happy.” Blink said.

Mush ignored him. “-I’ll never like him. I’m not even being dramatic, he’s just awful.”

Blink also thought that Mush was being dramatic.

“This is all because Tommy beat him today in Race’s - I mean, Anthony’s - weird hot sauce challenge.” Blink said.

Jayne (that was her name) quirked an eyebrow at him as she passed Mush his plate. “And that entails, what exactly?”

“Don’t ask.” Blink waved her off.

“That’s not it at all.” Mush frowned. “He’s just irritating and a bad influence and has the worst attitude I’ve ever seen. He’s just some rich snob with no experience in life and who takes other people for granted.”

“Okay, you’re definitely being over dramatic.” Blink said.

“I’m not! Ask Jojo! He said that Finch told him that Tommy lives in this lavish house, deals in sports and just skives classes - which we already know.”

“I don’t want you hanging out with somebody who skips class, Nicholas.” Jayne said.

Mush nodded, “Exactly! And it’s worse that he’s doing it with Finch!”

Jayne coughed.

“I mean, Patrick.” Mush corrected himself.

His mom really didn’t like nicknames. She thought they were childish and unnecessary; despite being regarded as ‘Smalls’ back in the day due to her below average height.

“Well, that’s Patrick’s issue, Nick, not yours.” She said.

“I guess.”

Blink smiled at him. “Anyway, enough about Tommy-“

“Thomas, I’m assuming?” Jayne said.

Mush laughed. “He’d really hate you, mom.”

That made her smile all the more brightly and she took a bite of some steak - pink in the middle.

“I really don’t care what he’d think of me. If you don’t like him, then I doubt I will. You’re a good judge of character, Nicholas, just make sure you’re not tainting you’re view based on one meeting.” She said.

Blink couldn’t help but think that Jayne was the voice of reason in every one of his stories.

_________________

After Tommy had left, things just hadn’t been as fun. Finch had found himself feeling rather upset at Jojo’s outburst, and despite feeling like there was some underlying cause to his bitterness, Finch just hadn’t mustered you the strength to care at that moment in time. He could easily talk to Jojo about it on Monday, but for now, he was rather content with giving his friend the silent treatment.

It was probably petty of him, but Finch really didn’t see an issue with Tommy.

He also wondered whether Romeo’s perception of the boy was clouded due to the car episode...Maybe he really was just giving Tommy the time of day because he was guilty...

Finch felt bad for him.

“Finch, would you like snack?” His Gran asked him as she came into the living room.

It was a small room, and no where near as nice as Tommy’s house...But Finch didn’t care about stuff like that; well, he hadn’t until he had seen Tommy’s house. And now that he thought about it, he was rather insecure of the place he called home.

“No thank you.” He said.

“Why so blue, dear?” His Gran smiled sadly at him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She always could read him well.

“It’s just friendship group troubles, Gran. It’s not a big deal.”

She sat down next to my on the sofa, bringing her arms around him as he leaned into her comforting touch.

“It must be if it’s bothering you.”

Finch only nodded.

“Did i give you enough money for your ticket and lunch today?”

“Yeah, it was enough. Thank you.”

Finch always appreciated everything is Grandma did for him. After all, she hadn’t been obliged to take him in after the incident with his mother. His Gran has always been a family woman.

“Good, good. I’m glad.” She said.

“Gran?”

“Yes, dear?”

“What would you do if you thought your friends thought ill of somebody? But you knew that the person they didn’t like was actually really nice, but even if you said anything to them, they wouldn’t believe you. Just...What would you do?”

She seemed to think about it for a moment before answering.

“Nothing.” She said. “I’d do absolutely nothing. If they can’t see how much of a wonderful person they are, and that you know they are, then they don’t deserve to get to know this person at all. You can’t think ill of somebody before you know them. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors.”

“Yeah.” Finch said. “I suppose...”

If only they would see it that way.

* * *

Tommy never liked arguing with his dad, and earlier had barely been a spat - but it was like he’d said, he himself wasn’t easy to get along with; it was a shame that his dad had to live with him. Honestly, Tommy didn’t know how anyone put up with him. And now he was just wallowing in self-pity. He thought he was pathetic here right now, alone in his room, applications finally filled out and sent off – he always did as he was told at the end of the day.

There was a knock at his door, but Tommy didn’t even bother looking up from where he was laying on his bed, stomach first.

“Tommy?”

His mum.

“Yeah?” He answered.

She let herself in, sighing when she saw him.

“Dinner’s ready.” She said.

Evening had crept in fast, in fact, it was dark now; and it was like today hadn’t even happened.

“I’m not hungry.” Tommy said.

His mum sighed again, stepping into his room and closing the door. Tommy could see on the digital clock on his bedside table that it was 8:30pm, which meant that his mum had been working late again, his dad was probably also wallowing, setting up his office downstairs in the furbished basement – and in the midst of it all, his mum had cooked dinner.

It didn’t matter where Ross was or what she was doing, she was the golden child – the successful 24-year-old with so much potential to keep on achieving and achieving and achieving.

Tommy was sinking.

“That’s not true.” His mum, Joanne, said. “You’re always hungry.”

She went over to the bed and laid down beside him, propping herself up on one arm as she spoke;

“I spoke to your dad.”

“Yeah?” Tommy mumbled unenthusiastically. That usually meant that he was in trouble.

“You know we just want what’s best for you, right?”

She always spoke so softly, unless he was really in trouble, then it was the stern, disappointed tone that loomed over him for weeks at a time.

“I know.” Tommy said.

It was best just to agree, even if he did know it was true, he sometimes thought that if they would just stop believing in him so much, things would feel better.

“You still haven’t unpacked.” Joanne noticed. “Do you want me to help you?”

And when would Tommy have asked her for help? She was always working, his dad was always working, his sister was always working. This was just what his life was like. He’d been trusted alone in the house from the age of eleven – just don’t open the door to anybody, call if you need us, dinner’s in the fridge, ‘_I love you._’

“I love you.” Tommy said.

His mum smiled at him, “I know. I love you too, sweetheart.”

Softly spoken and soothing, and he was always lost in his head.

“Your dad says he’s sorry.” She said.

Tommy didn’t answer her. He could tell him that himself tonight after dinner, where they’d do the washing up and the pressure would ease as each item would be cleaned. Tommy wished the dishwasher and hot soapy water in the sink could fix all of his problems.

He didn’t speak about them much, but they were always there, subconsciously. ‘Seventeen with the world at his feet, if only he (you) just understood.’

Joanne placed a hand on Tommy’s back, rubbing soothingly as Tommy closed his eyes, his shoulders relaxing. He was always so tense.

“He said that you said your back was hurting again?” She said.

Tommy shrugged – as good as he could whilst laying down – a small movement.

“When is it not?”

“When you two aren’t arguing.”

Tommy supposed that was true.

“It hurts sometimes, but I doubt there’s anything wrong with it.”

She lifted his shirt slightly, looking his lower back. There was nothing there anymore, like nothing had even happened. When the injury had happened, Tommy’s back had bruised, and it had looked nasty – but scans showed that the damage underneath wasn’t as bad as it looked. He’d gotten off lucky, but sometimes it ached; it was just easier to say that it hurt.

“Do you wanna get it tested again?” She asked. “Just to ease your mind.”

“No. It would be a waste of money.” Tommy said.

But money wasn’t the issue, and it would never be an issue. With all the money his parents had, Tommy wouldn’t have to work a day in his life. However, his parents didn’t want their kids to have the easy life – after all, they had worked so, so hard to get to where they were today. They always wanted their kids to work hard, and Ross had (was even still), Tommy had – but whatever he did was never good enough, not really. He had to be on top of everything, he didn’t have the easy life that Ross had with working in the real world. Tommy had the ‘athlete’s dream’ pinned onto him at birth, and that would never, ever be the ‘easy life.’

“Just make sure you warm up properly tomorrow, take things slow – don’t show off.” Joanne said, laughing when Tommy looked at her.

“I don’t _show off_.” He defended, moving to lay on his back. “I can’t help it if I’m just better than everyone.”

Joanne rolled her eyes, “Come on, dinner’s gonna get cold.”

And that was that, things getting brushed under the rug once again. Any injury, any fear, any mistake, any goddamn problem would never be faced in this house – everything had to be perfect, or the machine would stop working.

Put up a façade and pretend you’re fine or face it and disturb the balance of a large family where everybody would know what you’d done wrong.

So, be perfect or get out. And Tommy would be perfect.


	10. Isn't it all just peachy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy tries out for his new potential team and there's friction in the group.

Monday had come around too quick for Romeo’s liking, and he was, once again, sat in his dreaded math class. It just wasn’t his thing. At least tonight he started rehearsals for Dogfight at the company – _Youthful Stars_ – he was in, and he was beyond excited. Auditions had been during the late summer, and Romeo had been more than thrilled to get the character of Bernstein, a supporting role – the biggest role he’d ever gotten within the company so far.

He’d been doing theatre all of his life, having started dancing at the age of five, he’d quickly found a passion for all of the arts. However, he could never quite grasp the instrument side of things, but he was okay with that.

“Have you heard from Tommy lately?”

Romeo looked up from his current problem to face a different one – Finch was looking at him from his desk in front.

“Uh, no.” Romeo said.

He wasn’t fond of it when people spoke to him during class, he was quite reserved in that aspect, despite never shutting up around his friends.

Finch carried on. “I just wondered if maybe he’d said anything at all…About Saturday…”

Of course, he wouldn’t have, Romeo had basically been accused of being friends with the guy out of guilt! Why would Tommy want to talk to him of all people? Romeo hadn’t stopped thinking about it all weekend, and he’d sent him multiple messages and had received nothing back, so he supposed that that was that then. The end. Done. Over. Goodbye friendship hello rejection.

“Nope, he hasn’t spoken to me about anything. Has he said anything to you?” Romeo asked.

“No, he-“

“Let’s talk about this at lunch.” Romeo quickly interrupted when the math teacher shot them a glare over her expensive glasses that sat on her nose awkwardly. She looked like that slug lady from Monsters Inc; except she wasn’t ugly…But then again, Romeo would compliment anybody because, ugly was such an awful word, and nobody was ugly. Only awful people were ugly.

* * *

“Only awful people are ugly?” Mush questioned; eyebrow raised as he watched Romeo put some things in his locker.

“Yes!” Romeo said, slamming his locker shut.

“And you said this out loud…in math class because…?”

Romeo leant his head against his locker as he sighed. “Finch was asking me about Tommy.”

Mush groaned, and Romeo turned to look at him.

“Well, go on then, say it.” Romeo said. “Run your mouth about how bad he is, about how much he annoys you. I know you’re just dying to.”

Mush frowned at him, holding his hands up in defence. He watched as Romeo’s shoulders deflated before he said anything else.

“What happened on Saturday after I left?”

“Just…Wait, you don’t know?” Romeo asked.

“No. Blink wouldn’t let me onto the group chat – he says I’m obsessed.” Mush laughed a little after that, bumping shoulders with his shorter friend.

“You are.” And Romeo was deadly serious for once.

“Ro…”

“No, Mush. What happened was Jojo had a go at Tommy, basically speaking for everyone, and I…I didn’t speak up. I didn’t defend Tommy and now he won’t talk to me.”

“Wow, this is…This is really bothering you, isn’t it?”

“Yes, quite frankly it is, Mush. And every time you make a snide comment about it, it makes me feel worse!”

“It makes…_you_, feel worse?” Mush asked.

“Yep. Because you’re pushing Tommy away and making him obviously feel like he doesn’t belong here, and it’s pushing me away too.” Romeo said, his face rather distraught with the way that he felt. “It’s upsetting me, okay? I’m allowed to be upset by this.”

Romeo began walking down the hallway and Mush followed him, pushing past a few people to get to him. He grabbed his backpack, pulling him back gently and Romeo turned around to look at him.

“What?” He said.

“You’re acting like we’re in love and we’re breaking up, Ro. Why are you being so serious?”

“Because I think you’re being a dick!”

A few people stared at them as they walked past.

Mush’s face dropped, and he realised that he would be unable to get any joke past Romeo right now. This was definitely serious business, and he was definitely hurt by that comment.

“You’re obsessed with Thomas! And before, it was fine. Awkward, but fine. But now you’re just being mean about it, and he obviously wants nothing to do with any of us anymore, and that isn’t okay.” Romeo snapped, keeping his tone hushed this time.

“Thought it was ‘Tommy’.” Mush mumbled.

“You’re unbelievable.” Romeo said. “He thinks I’m only friends with him because I feel guilty for hitting him with my car!”

“Which, by the way, everybody knows…and also thinks is hilarious.” Mush said.

He was caught off guard when Romeo wiped frustratedly at his eyes. Oh crap…He was crying.

“Ro…Hey, it’s okay. Nobody is holding it against you. It’s fine, totally fine. I can honestly say that Tommy isn’t holding it against you at all, not in the slightest. Not. At. All.”

Romeo let out a pathetic huff, letting Mush pull him into a hug. “I’m sorry for being a dick.”

“It’s fine, I deserve it. I have been a dick lately, not you…” Mush said.

He felt Romeo nod against his shoulder before he pulled away, watching him rub the tears away.

“Guess we’re both obsessed with Tommy Boy, huh?” Mush joked.

“For different reasons…” Then Romeo shoved Mush by his shoulder. “And no! I’m not _obsessed _with him. I just want to make sure he’s alright after what Jojo said.”

“And what you didn’t say…”

“Yeah…Well, Finch has also been trying to talk to him but hasn’t gotten anything back either.”

“No offence, Ro, but I don’t feel like helping Tommy out in any way, okay? I don’t like him, but I’m willing to tolerate him from now on. I’m really sorry I upset you.”

“It’s okay.” Romeo smiled at him, “I really hate getting annoyed at you, but it was all just bothering me, you know?”

“I’m sure he’s fine, stop stressing so much. I highly doubt he’s about to fling himself off of something just because of some petty thing Jojo said.”

* * *

Tommy would rather be at school than here, and that was saying something. At least school was safe, and he wouldn’t be reminded of all the things that he was scared of – like diving from the ten metres, which is what he was supposed to be doing in fifteen minutes, and not hiding away in a bathroom stall with his insides trying to rip him apart.

He’d been here for longer than he’d wanted to, and it was clear to him that he obviously didn’t want to be here; but to everybody else, he was having the time of his life. Smiling, being appropriate and making sure the family name wasn’t being abolished with a bad attitude. He was being everything that they needed him to be, but he just couldn’t face it.

And then all his composure washed away down the toilet as he promptly threw up in it.

“_Fuck_.” He sighed as he wiped his mouth, leaning back against the cold, tiled wall; his bare back against it made him shiver.

“_Come on, Tommy…You can do this, just stop being so fucking stupid._”

Whenever he felt like this, he always hated himself just that little bit more because, he was disappointing himself and the people around him – he had everything put out on a plate for him, yet, he was wasting his potential just sat here feeling pathetic. But that was harsh thinking because, he was only human, and being this miserable wasn’t healthy; but he’d do anything to keep his parents happy for everything they had worked for.

Tommy looked down at his watch, (waterproof, of course), and sighed, dragging himself up and flushing the chain, having forgotten to do that already. He let himself out of the stall, thankfully, he came face to face with nobody, which was great, except-

“Puking your guts up, huh? You scared of heights or something?”

Tommy felt like a deer in the headlights, and for once, he didn’t have a witty comeback.

The other boy just looked at him. “What? Do you not speak English, new kid?”  
“I’m not the new kid.” Tommy said.

“Not if you don’t show the team what you’ve got.”

That was the last thing Tommy wanted to do right now.

The boy sighed, “Which, by the way, won’t be hard considering your reputation.”

“What do you mean?” Tommy asked. He usually understood anything that was thrown at him, but obviously he’d been caught off guard.

“_The _Thomas Martin. _‘Diving extraordinaire’_ your age. Well, except for that time you plummeted drastically. Is that why you had to move to an entirely new country?”

“Fuck you.”

“Wow, you do have a tongue. Nice to know, new kid.”

“I’m not the _new _kid. Who the fuck are you, anyway?” Tommy asked not so politely.

“I’m Dan.” And he stuck his hand out for Tommy to shake. “You can shake it, if you didn’t barf on your hand that is.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, batting Dan’s hand away and he went over to the sink to make sure his appearance wouldn’t give off any evidence to what had happened.

“And it’s Tommy. Not _Thomas_.” He said.

Dan nodded, “Cool, cool. Nice to know since we’ll be on the same team this season.”

“Just shut up. I haven’t even made the team yet. There’s plenty of guys out there today that deserve a spot.”

“And you don’t think you’re gonna get it because you’re…bulimic, or what?”

Wow, this guy was more of a dick than Tommy was, and that was saying something. At least Tommy knew when to shut the fuck up and not overstep boundaries.

“No. And I’m not scared of heights either. I’m just not feeling it, that’s all.” Tommy said.

“Ah, I see.”

“And I don’t owe you an explanation either, so just drop it.”

Tommy set off to walk out of the bathroom after he’d washed his face, spitting in the sink a little and ignoring Dan’s disgusted look.

“If you flunk your 10m dive, I’ll laugh.” Dan called after him.

That seemed to be enough for Tommy to just get this over with just so he could one up this guy. He’d obviously seen the numerous videos of himself taking a bad fall back in Sydney, and that wasn’t even a complex dive…Tommy hadn’t been up to his game and had paid the price. He sometimes thought that he was definitely a part of why his parents had dragged him and Ross across the ocean…because he’d failed at the Australian National try outs, he’d checked the dates so he knew he was right, and now they were gearing him up for the American Young Adults National try outs.

All they wanted was for him to be successful, and if it was this important to them that they’d give up everything (well, pursue other offers) then Tommy had to take that into accounts and stop whining about it all of the time. He’d have to ignore all of the negative thoughts surrounding his own happiness, or lack thereof, and suck it up that his parents and Ross were at work 90% of the time. It wasn’t like anything but his surroundings had drastically changed, so Tommy could learn to deal with it for the sake of a future that those around him cared about more than he did.

Climbing the stairs up to the 10 metres was numb. He didn’t feel anything as he did it, and that was mostly thanks to Dan – whoever the fuck he was. Tommy had long ago figured out that the only reason he could get through things like this was to prove somebody wrong. He’d lasted out Mush in that stupid hot sauce challenge to prove him wrong. He’d started talking to Finch to prove Romeo wrong. He could do anything with that mindset – his whole life revolved around it, and his whole complex was built upon the foundation that proving people wrong felt fucking fantastic.

He took a breath as he stood at the edge. Everything seemed so small from up here, and that meant something to him; it brought some enjoyment back into everything, but he was still scared. He couldn’t risk messing up again otherwise, he wouldn’t get in and his parents would be less than proud of him.

There were so many things that already made him the ‘family fuck up’, things left in the past that nobody addressed. Getting expelled from his old school for absconding and having less than average grades. Fucking up an important dive. Taking his prescription painkillers at night to help him fall asleep when he wasn’t even in any pain. He was sure his parents knew about that one, otherwise, why would he ask for so many refills? They just ignored it, Tommy was sure of that; but then again, he was incredibly good at hiding that issue, and he was merely paranoid about them finding out about it because, it would end them. So, no, they definitely did not know.

Breathing in control, he thought to do something easy – something that his ten-year-old self would have been proud of, but was so, so easy for him now. Something he could pull off flawlessly and have the best chance of getting in. Something that wouldn’t necessarily score him the highest points in a competition, but something complex enough to show them his skills and potential that he’d be good for the team. 

Tommy didn’t hesitate with all of the thoughts swirling around in his head as he jumped, flipping and twisting in the air, hitting the water with minimal splash. His technique had been flawless, definitely. And just for a few seconds, he got to be engulfed by the water as it wrapped around him, the bubbles coating him in a comforting presence – like if he just stayed there for long enough, everything would be fine. It was always so tempting to just stay submerged, but he had shit to do and there was no time for everything to switch off, not even for a second.

He got out.

After speaking with the coach and investors in the team, shaking their hands and smiling, thanking them when they complimented him – saying that he had come highly recommended and promising to email him with the outcome tonight, Tommy walked on into the changing rooms, past Dan whose face was priceless.

_‘Fucking, take that you egotistical son of a bitch.’ _Tommy thought.

It was like he was talking about himself sometimes, and wasn’t that just peachy?

* * *

Thankfully, nobody was home when Tommy got there; which meant that he could go in unquestioned and just pretend that his life was normal for more than fifteen minutes.

He went straight for the fridge after putting his bag down, flipping off his shoes and leaving them haphazardly in the hallway. He got out some orange juice, gulping down some straight from the carton like the true champ that he was – like the true champ that he was supposed to be.

He was scared to get the results from today, a lot was weighing on them, and he couldn’t always assume that he got into things because of his skill level. Life didn’t always work that way and being cocky before had left him in the position that he was in now. He’d learnt his lesson.

In the fridge there was a plate of his favourite – Thai green curry, his mum’s homemade recipe – and a note that read; _‘Sorry we can’t be there to celebrate your victory! Love, mum.’ _

Well, everyone else seemed to be assuming the best, which only made things worse when waiting for the outcome…alone. But that was probably most definitely for the best, it just sucked. It was too much time to think about things that he couldn’t change.

Tommy went into the living room, lounging comfortably on the couch. He was tired. However, his phone buzzed, and he realised that he hadn’t even checked it all day. At least that was normal for him, he was always bad with technology.

He immediately noticed the numerous texts from Romeo and Finch, one from Jojo which was a paragraph or two long if the dots of impending doom at the end of the lock screen preview were anything to go by. Then there were just the many messages from the group chat, which Tommy couldn’t care less about right now.

What he did care about right now though was the knock at the door.

He opened the front door to see Romeo and Finch stood there. Romeo was holding a paper bag with two handles on, his Grandad’s jeep parked on Tommy’s driveway. (How had he even retained that small detail about a car that would probably kill him one day?)

“Hey.” Romeo said.

“Hey, Tommy.” Finch added with a small wave.

It took Tommy a moment to even process that two people were stood there. It was an odd gesture, to say the least. Any feelings about what had happened on Saturday had been swept away by the fear of today’s try outs and his dad being on his back about applications for said try outs. Things had gotten busy, but now that these two were stood here, everything came flooding back, and it was yet another thing that Tommy had to think about.

“Yeah?” He said. “What do you guys want?”

He watched as Romeo cringed a little at his tone.

“We came to check on you. You weren’t at school today.” Romeo said.

“Thankyou, _Einstein_. Not like I didn’t know that.” Tommy said.

Finch frowned at him. “Are you sick?”

“Not exactly…” Was Tommy’s answer.

It wasn’t a lie.

“Oh.” Romeo said. “Well, we brought you soup and cookies. My mom made them, and she had leftovers so I thought I’d bring em over…You know…” He thought it was pretty lame now by Tommy’s unamused look.

Finch huffed out a breath by the tension that was between them. Clearly Tommy hadn’t forgotten about what Jojo had said about Romeo’s guilt complex.

“And I just brought myself, hope that’s okay?” Finch said, knowing that Tommy responded better to sarcasm.

He smiled at him, and Tommy raised an eyebrow.

“Come in.” He said and turned on his heel back down the hallway.

Finch followed him whilst Romeo just stayed put outside, not knowing if he had meant him too.

“You as well, short stack!” Tommy shouted from somewhere in the house.

Romeo jumped at the sound of his voice, and he couldn’t help but smile at the light tone of voice.

“And shut the door! You’re letting in a draft!” Tommy added.

“Alright! Grouchy, jeez…” Romeo mumbled, but hey, progress was progress.

Romeo got to the living room, still holding the goods. Finch had been rambling about something random, having made himself at home on the couch whilst Tommy was stuck staring at his phone.

“What is it?” Romeo asked, Finch being too oblivious in the moment.

Finch stopped whatever it was he’d been talking about to look at Tommy.

“Tommy?” He said.

“I got in.” Tommy said, and that was all he said.

“Got in?” Romeo asked. “Got into what?”

Tommy was too busy reading the email over and over to even consider responding to Romeo’s question.

Finch, despite previously being oblivious to the slight situation at hand, seemed to grasp onto the topic quicker than Romeo ever could because, Romeo had no idea.

“Is this about diving? Is that where you were today?” Finch asked. “I know you mentioned it the other day…Well, _I _mentioned it.”

Tommy still didn’t say anything.

“Did you get into a team, or something?” Finch and Romeo looked at each other.

“Tommy?” Romeo waved his free hand in front of him. “Hellooo, ground control to major Tom?”

“Uh, yeah.” Tommy mumbled before speaking up. “Yeah, yeah. I got in. I went to try outs today and I got in.”

Finch burst out into a grin, standing up and fist bumping the air like one of those cliché movies.

“That’s so awesome! You got in! That’s brilliant, right Tommy?”

“Yeah, congrats, Tommy.” Romeo said.

It was weird for Romeo because, It seemed that he hardly knew anything about Tommy, whereas Finch sure knew a plate full of stuff – enough to make a judgement on things and whether they were good and bad. However, this was proving difficult, even for Finch’s extensive knowledge on the new kid.

“No, yeah, it’s good.” Tommy said.

At least, he thought it was. At least, his parents would think it was, and these two would think it was. So, Tommy would go back to believing it was.

“It is good. Great, actually.” Tommy said it with more confidence this time.

Finch’s smile returned from its small falter, and Romeo looked less confused now.

“Skipping school for try outs?” Romeo said.

“What are you, my mum?” Tommy said back. “Just gimme a cookie.”

And Romeo happily obliged.


	11. I may be crazy, but you're difficult.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Romeo is having issues and Albert is brainstorming.

The cookies were good, they were about the only thing that was good right now.

“How’s your head?” Romeo asked whilst Finch was in the bathroom.

They remained in the living room talking about random things – well, it was mostly Finch doing the talking whilst Romeo and Tommy pretended to listen and follow along whilst their minds were both preoccupied on different things. The usual, then.

“Uh, fine. It’s fine.” Tommy said.

He didn’t feel it now, and he definitely didn’t miss the horrible feeling of stitches clinging to his skin whenever he so much as raised his eyebrows.

“Better.” He added.

“Good, that’s good.” Romeo said. “It looks good, no more bruising or anything.”

And Tommy did what he could now, raise an eyebrow without that cringing sensation being sent down his spine.

“Thanks, I guess.”

Romeo nodded, “You’re welcome.” He the cleared his throat. “So…”

“So…” Tommy echoed.

“You got into a team? Nice, that’s cool. I didn’t know you…dove? Dived? Do diving?” _He was making this more awkward than it already was_.

“You never asked.” Tommy said, ignoring Romeo’s weird wording. _He was supposed to be smart, apparently_.

“Guess there hasn’t been much time to catch up.”

“Yeah, I know. Between you and your friends bashing me every two seconds, and me returning to prison, it’s been hard.”

“Prison? What?”

“Never mind.” Tommy shrugged him off. _Obviously, nobody understood_.

“And they don’t dislike you.” Romeo said, “Well, I mean, Mush does but that’s just Mush. And I-“

“Feel guilty?”

“No, what Jojo said wasn’t any of his business. I do wanna be friends with you, Tommy, it’s just weird to look at you sometimes when…” He motioned to his forehead. “When I’m reminded of what I did every day.”

“Jeez, you didn’t kill me. Stop attention seeking, I’m the one who got hit. Just get over it already.” Tommy rolled his eyes so clearly.

Romeo was suddenly thinking that coming was a bad idea.

“What’s got you so wound up all of a sudden?” He was diverting from the fact that Tommy’s comment had hurt him.

It was his only defence mechanism. Romeo was good at speaking about his feelings whenever the occasion rose, but this was not the time and place for it when one of his best friends were just down the hall.

Maybe Finch was listening? Maybe what Romeo really wanted to say to Tommy would be heard, and he didn’t want that.

Tommy narrowed his eyes at him. “Nothing. Why are you avoiding the subject?” 

“I’m not. Why are you being so defensive?”

“Because I’m fucking defensive, alright?” 

“Alright.”

“Okay.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

“What’s going on?” Finch said as he returned.

“Nothing, I was just leaving. I’ve got rehearsals.” Romeo said as he gathered up his bag, leaving the bag of soup and cookies on the coffee table. “Enjoy. See you guys at school.” And he left and let himself out.  
Tommy sighed as he let himself fall backwards onto the sofa, laying down on his back.

“What was that about?” Finch asked.

“Nothing. Romeo’s just being a fucking pussy, that’s all.”

Finch inwardly cringed, obviously Tommy was in a mood. In fact, he’d never seen him like this before – which wasn’t hard considering the short amount of time he’d known him.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”   
Tommy took the opportunity for a change.

“It’s just that, every time he even comes close to talking to me, he always brings up the car thing. I don’t get the big deal; it doesn’t bother me.”

Granted, Tommy kind of wished that it would have been worse, just enough, so that his parents would give him a break from diving for a change.

Finch sat down by Tommy’s feet. “I mean…I’ve known Ro for a long time, he’s always been sensitive about things.”

“Well, he needs to lighten up.”

“This coming from you who looks like someone’s just kicked his dog.”

Tommy playfully shoved him off of the couch. “Shut up.”

Finch retaliated by throwing one of the couch cushions at him, which Tommy threw back harder. Finch sat it in his lap.

“Did you want to go to try outs today?” Finch asked, not looking at him.

Tommy remained laying down, putting his arms behind his head as he looked up at the ceiling.

“Nah.”

It was enough for the both of them to slip into a comfortable silence, and Tommy was glad that Finch had come; he was a lot easier to get along with than Romeo because, he was easier to understand, he didn’t mess around with his head like Romeo did. Tommy was sure that that wasn’t an intentional thing, it was just that, Romeo was hung up on something that didn’t matter whilst everyone had moved on from it. Tommy understood that, which was why he found it hard to talk to him.

“We are friends, you know that, right?” Finch said.

“Shut up.”

And Tommy threw another cushion at him, and Finch just smiled.

* * *

“I have a problem!” Romeo said down the phone.

He heard Albert huff on the other line. “And you’re telling me this because?”

“Because I tell you everything.”

“You didn’t tell me you hit Tommy with your car, he did.”  
Romeo ran a hand down his face, sitting down on his bed. “That’s beside the point, Al.”

“Why didn’t you call Jojo? He’s always good at giving advice.” Albert said.

“Because Jojo likes Tommy as much as Mush does.”

“Which is not a lot.”

“Exactly.” Romeo said. “I just need you to tell me if I’m being crazy or not.”

“What? For overexaggerating about the whole thing? If Tommy said he doesn’t care about it, then he doesn’t care about it. Men aren’t that complex, Ro.”

Romeo made a weird face, as if Albert was sat in front of him. “I know that because, I to, am a guy.”

“A better guy. You understand the _dreaded_ _feelings_. I don’t, and Tommy clearly doesn’t.”

“What are you trying to say?” Romeo asked.

“I’m just saying, maybe not be so uptight about things when you talk to him, you know? It’s probably weirding him out that you’re so stressed.”

Albert tended to be useful in times like these, despite claiming that he wasn’t. He usually said just the right thing that Romeo needed to hear.

“Thanks Al, you’re a lifesaver!”

“Just doing my duty. Now, do you think a beaver, or a squirrel would win in a rock fight?”

_Well, only sometimes._

* * *

“Your rooms…nice.” Finch commented as he looked around.

There were boxes which were mostly unpacked, and the room was untouched – no sign of anything Tommy liked, and it wasn’t even messy.

“What are these?” Finch asked as he approached the desk, seeing an open box.

“Nothing! They’re nothing!” But Tommy didn’t get to him in time and Finch was already looking inside.

Finch’s eyes went wide at how many trophies and medals were in the box, pulling one out and feeling the weight of it – Tommy’s name embedded into the material, ‘1st Place’, of course.

Tommy snatched it out of his hand and put it back into the box, and Finch looked across at him.

“You have a lot of these. Your parents must be proud of you, huh?” Finch said.

Tommy glared at him, “What would you know?” He snapped.

He not-so-gently placed the box onto the floor, the lid bouncing slightly.

Finch tried to ignore the stinging in his chest. It was true, what would he know? His mum didn’t love him, she’d said that many times, and his dad had abandoned him. He only had his Gran, and that wasn’t exactly a normal family setting.

“Why don’t you tell your parents that you don’t wanna do it anymore?” Finch suggested.

Tommy wasn’t having any of it.

“Just shut the fuck up! Jesus, Finch. It’s none of your business.”

“I’m sorry.” Finch said, but then he looked at him again. “But what if you-“  
“Just stop talking about it! All you ever bring up is diving this, diving that – _Tommy, your parents must be so proud_! Maybe I wanna talk about something else, Finch!”

Tommy sat down on his bed, running his hands down his face in frustration. Finch didn’t say anything as he just watched his shoulders deflate, the tension falling out of his body.

“I’m sorry…” Tommy said.

Finch went over and sat down next to him, the bed sinking between them. “You had a bad day, huh?”

Tommy huffed out an unenthusiastic laugh. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“You know…” Finch started. “I could help you unpack if you like. Make this place look like an actual bedroom instead of a disaster.”

For once, it was nice for somebody to stay instead of running out the door whenever Tommy got the least bit angry about something. He hadn’t expected Finch to bounce back so easily, and not appear out of place in the slightest like people usually did.

“Yeah, okay.” Tommy agreed.

Finch smiled warmly at him, patting him on the back as he stood up. “Let’s get to work then!”

Finally, something that wasn’t forcing him underground, but rather, into the boxes that he didn’t want to unpack because, he didn’t want to be here. This place wasn’t home, and that was yet another problem on his never-ending list. However, Finch’s positivity to something that Tommy didn’t like, made him think that it couldn’t be so bad really. If Finch was willing to delve into things, then Tommy could too.

What had Finch had said, asking Tommy why he didn’t just tell his parents that he didn’t want to dive anymore…It had been out of line for him to ask something like that. It was so much harder than just a simple statement. If Tommy said something like that, he’d be unravelling his entire life for the sake of it all just stopping – but as good as that seemed, he just couldn’t take it having his parents look at him with more disappointment in his eyes than they already did.

* * *

No matter what happened, everything came back round to school. Tommy never knew where he stood with these things, since he’d much rather live in between the two biggest problems in his life; diving and school.

“Hey Tommy, where were you yesterday, man?” Albert asked as he approached him.

Tommy thought that was rather unusual. He’d spoken to Albert away from the usual lunch table.

“Uh, sick.” He just said.

Albert frowned, “Hope you’re feeling better. I gotta get co class so, I’ll see you at lunch.” And he went on his way.

Week two, and Tommy swore he was going insane.

Albert hadn’t thought much of his phone call with Romeo, after all, it was typical for Romeo to overthink things and accidentally ‘weird’ people out, and Al definitely thought that Tommy was ‘weirded’ out. It was as simple as that, and he had an idea to fix a problem such as this.

“Race.” He jogged to catch up with his best friend.

“Yo!”

Albert wrapped an arm around his shoulder as they walked. “I’ve got an idea. You in?”

“Absolutely.”

“It’s concerning that you haven’t even asked what it is.”

Race shrugged, “I just know it’s gonna be good.”  
  



	12. The new kid 2.0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy and Romeo finally discuss things, and Tommy is beginning to learn what being a teenager is truly about.

When Albert had come to him with his idea, Racetrack hadn’t expected to have been shoving Tommy Boy into a closet, consequently bumping into Romeo, and then locking the door behind them. It was an odd situation; however, Race wasn’t going to lie and say that he wasn’t enjoying himself because, he was. It had been a while since he and Albert had gotten a mischievous plan involving their friends.

“What the fuck? Let me out!” Tommy shouted, pounding his fists on the door.

Unfortunately for Al and Race, Tommy was actually quite strong.

“Not until you two stop being weird!” Albert shouted from the other side.

He and Racetrack were putting all of their weight on the door.

Tommy sighed heavily, finally turning around and facing Romeo, who was keeping himself to himself on the other side of the small closet. There was a mop in the corner, and Tommy half wondered whether that could be of some use to his current situation, but it was just a mop, and only good for cleaning up spills.

“Did you have something to do with this?” Tommy asked.

Romeo had a look on his face that read, ‘_are you talking to me?_’ and that irritated Tommy more than being held against his will.

“Well?” He said.

Romeo shook his head, “Nope, I honestly have no idea what’s going on.” He said.

“Great.” Tommy mumbled.

He wasn’t getting anywhere with the door, so he turned over the mop bucket and sat on it.

“Got any bright ideas, _Romeo_?” Tommy asked, spitting out the other’s name – it obviously wasn’t real, and Tommy tended to harshly pick at things he didn’t understand when he was stressed.

Like now.

Being held hostage in a closet was definitely a time to feel overly stressed.

Romeo brushed off Tommy’s sarcasm. “We could talk.” He suggested, sitting on the floor with his back leant against the opposite wall.

“Oh, so now you want to talk?” Tommy said.

“I’m just saying…” Romeo sighed, looking at him. “Albert is pretty stubborn when he’s got stupid ideas. So, I think we should talk.”

“About?”  
“About…You know, the car thing.”

“For fucks sake.” Tommy glared at him. “If this is the reason why I’m being locked in this fucking cupboard with you, I swear to god.”

“I don’t know what this is about! I already said that.” Romeo, for once, glared back at him.

It was the end of the school day, and Tommy hadn’t showed at lunch, so Albert hadn’t seen him like he’d said. Nobody had. Instead, Tommy had spent his time in the library because, it was quiet in there and he wouldn’t be disturbed by moronic, annoying people who thought they were good enough to actually be his friends.

Only, that wasn’t his issue at all…He was just angry.

“I’m gonna be late to training if they keep this bullshit up.” Tommy growled, standing up and once again, pounding on the door.

Albert and Racetrack had jumped at the loud noise and vibrations, they’d been listening closely from the other side. Immediately, they put their efforts back up.

“This isn’t The Shining!” Albert yelled.

“I swear, if you don’t open this door, I’m gonna kill you!” Tommy responded.

“You mean the training you don’t want to go to?” Romeo spoke up.

That stopped Tommy in his tracks, and he turned back around again like it was the first time he was seeing him.

“What did you just say?”

Romeo hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “Your face, Tommy, when you got the email; it was obvious you weren’t happy about getting in.”

“So, suddenly you’re a mind reader?” Tommy said.

“No! I’m just not stupid.”

“And you’re calling Finch stupid?”

“No, why would you think-“

“Because he believed me, for a moment.”

“Only for a moment. But what would I know, right? I don’t know you the way he does.”

At least they were talking now.

“I’m sorry? I didn’t realise I couldn’t _get to know _other people. Is that what this is about? You’re pissed off that I got your buddy to skip school with me? You’re as bad as the others-“

“How thick can you be?” Romeo shook his head in disbelief. “I’m annoyed because, I wanted to get to know you as well! But you won’t look twice my way!”

“You’re the one whose been avoiding me! Ever since last Saturday, you’ve been acting weird! It’s no wonder I’m actually friends with Finch because, he actually cares and isn’t in this for some guilt cure!”

“I’m not guilty!”

“Fuck you!”

Race and Albert looked at each other, both of them thinking that this might have been a bad idea after all. They didn’t want to the two of them to fight, and neither of them had ever heard Romeo shout before. In fact, neither of them had ever heard him this angry.

“I’m not guilty…” Romeo said, his voice now at a normal volume. “I’m upset, alright?”

“Oh, I couldn’t tell.” Tommy rolled his eyes.

“Just sit on your bucket and shut up.” Romeo said, “Let me explain.”

Tommy took a moment before he actually did as Romeo said. He eventually sat back down on the upside-down mop bucket, waiting for Romeo to carry on.

“I _was _feeling guilty, but then I realised something.” He started. “I spoke to Albert and-“

“So, this _was_ your idea then?” Tommy interrupted him.

“No.” Romeo said, “You’re missing the point.”

“Go on then, tell me.”

“I spoke to Albert, and he made me realise that I’m probably just as difficult as you are, just…less angry.”

Tommy was incredibly confused. Why couldn’t people just be upfront about things?

“What I mean is, I understand my feelings, and you don’t.” Romeo finally said. “And I was guilty, until I realised that you don’t actually care about what happened because, maybe you wanted it to happen.”

The weight in his stomach came back, and Tommy felt like he’d been caught red-handed. His mouth went dry, and he didn’t know how he was supposed to answer that.

It was like he was ten again, sat in his therapist’s office where he’d explained for the first time that, he didn’t feel happy, and maybe it was because his grandad had passed away. Everything then had been put down as that because, Tommy hadn’t elaborated on the swimming feeling in his gut, but he’d figured that one out rather recently. He hated his life, and he’d hated it for as long as he could remember, but it was more complex than that because, there were aspects that he used to love so much.

“Tommy?” Romeo spoke softly.

“I don’t hate diving.”

That was a start. ‘Route 1’ is what he’d always called it. It was how every successful appointment from the age of fourteen had begun, and then they’d go downhill from there because, they didn’t understand.

“I just hate the pressure.”

“Your parents?” Romeo asked.

“I can’t talk to them about all of this, they wouldn’t understand.”

“I think you should tell them, Tommy. You stepped out into the road-“

“We’re done now.” Tommy said.

Romeo was taken back by that, “Don’t shut me out again.”

“Again?”

“You weren’t keen on speaking to me either. I suppose we both forced it a little bit, huh?” And he smiled at him.

Tommy felt uncomfortable, but it wasn’t Romeo this time, it was the fact that, Romeo wasn’t an idiot. He knew things, and given time, Tommy knew that he’d know him better than himself ever could.

“Yeah, guess we did.” Tommy said. “In the beginning, I was only speaking to Finch to prove you wrong…That I could prove to you that I didn’t feel out of place. But I do.”

Romeo just had one of those faces that made you trust him and want to tell him all of your problems, but Tommy was afraid that if he said too much, he’d drive Romeo away. He knew that his thought process wasn’t normal, but it his, and he couldn’t change it.

“I’m sorry.” Romeo said. “I’m sorry that we met under those circumstances.”

“No need to get all formal about it.”

Romeo didn’t smile this time. “Let me take you to training?”

“Why?”

“Because I wanna see how good you think you are.”

And that was why Tommy had taken an interest in Romeo when they had been talking in the hospital. Romeo did say it how it was, you just had to wait for the right moment.

“Sorry, I can’t.” Tommy said. “My dad’s picking me up.” And his phone started ringing. “That’ll be him.”

Romeo nodded. “I see. What time do you finish?”

“Eight.”   
“Wow, it’s only three right now. You train for five hours?”

“Every evening.”

“Tommy…”

“Don’t. It’s fine.”

“I finish rehearsals at 8:30 tonight. You come by, okay? You come and meet me after, and I’m gonna show you my favourite place to for milkshakes. Deal?”

Tommy smiled at him, finally feeling like they were getting somewhere.

“Deal.” He said.

It was awfully quiet, it had been for a few minutes, and Albert and Race looked at the door from the desk they were both sat at. They hadn’t wanted to eavesdrop on their friends, so when the shouting had died down, they’d moved away from the door.

Romeo had that effect on people. He’d confuse them, distance himself because of his own insecurities, but in the end, things always worked themselves out. However, things usually ran smoothly, but Albert knew that Romeo and Tommy weren’t going to run smoothly until they were forced to, which is where the closet had come in handy.

“Hey! Ginger!”

Albert glared at the door where the muffled Aussie accent had come from.

“Let us out or I’ll set my dad on you!” _Romeo elbowed him for that one_.

Albert sighed as Racetrack laughed beside him. “Alright, alright!”

“Set his dad on us? What is he? Six?” Race joked.

Albert unlocked the door and opened it, being met with Tommy barging past him, and Romeo shrugging apologetically.

“Later, dick.” Tommy said, walking out of the room.

Racetrack was still smiling, despite Tommy’s words.

“You’re stuck on him, huh, Ro.” He said.

Romeo felt his face heat up unwillingly. “No. We just figured things out, that’s all.”

“You’re so oblivious, yet you’re called _Romeo_.” Albert said.

“I’m going home. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” And Romeo left, hearing Race and Al laughing behind him.

But that’s not what this was. Romeo did fall for people quickly, but he was just finally glad that he and Tommy had seemed to clear the air. However, it had opened up a whole load of issues that Romeo really hoped he hadn’t been right about because, now instead of distancing himself from the problem, he was worrying about it. He liked Tommy, but he didn’t really know what that was yet either. But milkshakes always helped him feel better, and something told him that Tommy hadn’t done something truly enjoyable for a long time.

* * *

Tommy’s dad had dropped him off, but he hadn’t left. Instead, he’d told Tommy that he had finished his workload earlier in the day just so he could spend time with him and watch him train. It would have been nice if his dad had taken him out somewhere or spent time with him at home and said he didn’t have to go, but Tommy had a reputation to uphold, and despite being unhappy, he was too stubborn to ever let it go and say something about his whole dilemma because, his dad was proud of him.

So, like before, Tommy was taking his sweet time in getting ready for practice.

“Told you I’d see you on the team.” Dan said as he walked in, gear still in his bag – obviously he’d just arrived.

“You’re late.” Tommy replied, pulling his shirt off.

“I can’t be that late if you’re not already out on the board.”

Tommy shrugged him off, putting his stuff in a locker.

This was a public leisure centre, and lane swimming was on this evening; and that gave Tommy a lot of stage fright. He knew that nobody would be watching him, not specifically…Well, his dad would be, and he seemed to have erased Tommy’s accident out of his mind, but that had been Tommy’s final breaking point – but he was still here.

“So, how did you fuck up that dive?” Dan asked as he got ready. “I only ask because, it’s pretty hard to fuck up. And I watched you try out the other day, and you were shaking like a damn leaf up there.”

Tommy didn’t understand how he could say all of this so casually when it bugged Tommy every day since it had happened. He felt his lower back twinge at the memory behind his eyelids. It still hurt, but it was more like a phantom pain than anything, like he would just never get over the embarrassment of failing that epically.

“You ever think about where you would have been if you hadn’t fucked up? I mean, missing your shot at the National team, that’s gotta be a harsh blow.” Dan said. “And trying to enter them at what? Sixteen turning seventeen. That’s quite old for Nationals. What? Did the Olympic team not want you?”

“I don’t see you anywhere where you could make it in this sport, _Daniel_.” Tommy said. “Just because I’ve had a setback, doesn’t mean I won’t make _your _countries National team; _your _countries Olympic team.” _That wasn’t what he wanted_. “Maybe you should think about who the fuck you’re talking to.”

Dan smirked at him. “You’re funny, truly.”

Tommy scoffed at him. Obviously, some people got a kick out of him being egotistical – they got a kick out of him being an asshole, and that was what Tommy tried so hard not to be, but it was hard to change who you were.

“Guess we better warm up then.” Dan said. “Since you’ve been out of the game for a while, Thomas.”

Tommy didn’t get this guy’s angle, but he couldn’t help but wonder if his sudden change of tone was because he’d passed some sort of test. Tommy hoped that the rest of team wasn’t as much of a dickhead as Dan appeared to be.

It reminded him of himself, which was no wonder why Tommy couldn’t sleep at night without a little bit of help from his prescription bottle. It always beckoned to him from the bathroom cabinet, and that was always where he ended up after everybody had gone to bed, like it was his little secret to keep. Only, he didn’t think it was a problem – lots of people took worse things, and Co-codamol was hardly a crime.

There was something about Dan that intrigued Tommy, like they were somehow on the same wavelength.

“You coming? Or are you gonna spend all evening vomiting again?” Dan said.

“Fuck off.”

And just like that, they had a connection.

* * *

“Are you sure you want to go out? Aren’t you tired?” His dad asked.

Training was over, and Tommy had asked his dad to drop him off at the address that Romeo had sent him. He’d googled it, and it looked like a fancy theatre place – somewhere that Tommy definitely wasn’t into.

“I am tired, but I said I’d hang out with a friend.” Tommy said.

Tommy’s hair was wet, and there was a drop that was constantly dripping down his neck and dampening his shirt. His dad wrapped his towel around his shoulders.

“You were never very good at drying yourself off.” He said. “I’m sorry for being hard on you this past weekend, I know the move hasn’t been easy on you. But things will start feeling like normal soon, believe me, Tommy.”

That was another thing about his dad; no matter how much of a ‘raging athlete’s parent’ he became, he always became his dad again, and Tommy loved that moment. He was proud of him, and Tommy didn’t want to burst his bubble.

“You did good today, to say you’ve been out of practice. Good job on not pushing yourself too hard.”

Tommy nodded, “Thanks, dad.”

He hadn’t pushed himself too hard or ‘shown off’ because, he was still scared of it all, and he knew that his coach knew that. She was sympathetic about it all and had even had a conversation with him about using the harness and spending more time in the gym rather than the water. She understood his fear, and Tommy actually thought that maybe he could begin to make progress once again; he could re-learn everything and not feel like he’d hit a ceiling.

“What time will you be back?” His dad asked.

Tommy shrugged. “Not too late, I am tired. Romeo will drop me off, we’re just going for some food.”

His dad raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Not like that.” Tommy rolled his eyes.

His dad laughed at him, “Alright, alright.” And began driving.

* * *

Mid-drive, Tommy had gotten a notification from Dan, asking him where he’d run off to so fast, and if he wanted to hang out with some of his friends. Tommy couldn’t think of anything worse, and he ignored him.

He walked into the theatre, smiling slightly when Romeo waved at him. He still had his towel rested on his shoulders, his hoodie on – which must have looked ridiculous, but Tommy didn’t care.

“Oh, you actually came.” Romeo joked.

“Shut up. Yes, I’ve come to your pansy theatre.”

Romeo pouted at him, “Ouch, I’m hurt.”

Tommy shoved his shoulder lightly. “Come on, it’s cold in here and I want a milkshake.”

Romeo grabbed his stuff and followed him out to his own car. No comments were exchanged over Tommy’s ‘hate’ for the vehicle, and Romeo was relieved. Their conversation had actually fixed the situation, and once they were in, Romeo was still smiling at him.

Tommy deliberately shook his head, his wet hair spraying Romeo.

“You’d think it would have dried by now.” He said grumpily, wiping the water off his face.

“Keeping it wet just so I could do that.” Tommy said, his tone light.

His phone buzzed with new notifications coming through. Both he and Romeo looked at it.

“Someone’s mister popular tonight. Good training session?” Romeo dared to ask.

Tommy shrugged. “It was okay…Don’t expect big gains, this shit bothers me.” He said.

Romeo didn’t want to pursue the topic in fear that he’d upset Tommy.

“New group chat?” Romeo asked.

“Looks like. Full of these random people I do not know, nor do I care to know.”

“That’s right, you’re already in the number one group chat.” Romeo said. “And it’s your turn to reply to Racetrack’s hourly meme. We take it in turns.”

Tommy couldn’t help but grin at that. It was so stupid, but maybe this was what being a teenager was truly about – being stupid.   
He sent a ‘_It sucks._’ To which Race quickly replied with, ‘_;(_‘ But nobody defended him. His latest meme did indeed, suck.

“Harsh but true.” Romeo said, smiling back at him.

“Shut up.” Tommy said fondly, “Are we getting shakes or what?”

Romeo didn’t have to be asked twice.


	13. Conflicts all round.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few months have gone by, and Tommy felt he was settling in well ever since he and Romeo had worked things out and were actually friends now. However, the peace doesn't last very long.

November was a chilly month, and the worst thing about living in a different hemisphere was definitely the cold. Tommy was and always would be a huge fan of Summer; and since he’d spent most of the previous Summer hating his life and unwillingly packing up his entire life to move across the ocean, he’d missed a full-on Summer where he just got to relax, despite still having to train. He was fed up of that too, especially nearing Winter and living in what he swore was the coldest fucking city on Earth, he was always fucking freezing.

Anyway, back to the reason he was thinking about the weather so thoroughly was because, he was sat in the Principal’s office, who seemed to have his air-conditioning on for some reason. Tommy was buried in his hoodie trying to fight the chill, and wishing he was back in English with Jojo staring holes into the back of his head.

It had been a few months, and since Tommy and Romeo had sorted their shit out, Tommy wasn’t finding things so bad – school wise, anyway. He no longer had to put up with uncomfortable conversation because, he could sit down at lunch and have _actual _conversation with Finch and Romeo; sometimes Race and Albert when they weren’t being irritating or weird. But Mush and Jojo were still salty about things that Tommy really didn’t give a shit about, and Blink stuck himself to Mush’s side like glue, and Tommy couldn’t care less about him either, so when in their presence, he shrugged them off – which was an improvement, since he wasn’t lashing out at them anymore.

“Ah, Thomas. How are you settling in?” The Principal said as he entered his office, sitting down in his desk chair across from him.

Tommy rolled his eyes, “It’s Tommy.”

Authority was still a problem for him – _it had only been a short length of time, give him some credit. _

The Principal looked at him over his glasses. “Thomas.” He said. It was a statement, but he disguised it as the start of a new sentence. “Your grades are becoming an issue.”

_Here we go_. Tommy thought. This had been an ‘issue’ at his old school, and his parents had been contacted by the school to put measures in place to help him gain back the ground he’d lost on schoolwork, due to his own fault. But in the end, he’d ended up getting expelled for too many absent days and fighting and being a generally crappy kid. It usually landed him at the desk of a very important person one way or another.

“In what way?” Tommy asked, pretending he was interested.

“I know it’s not been very long since school has started – a few months in the school’s eye may seem a lot to students, but to us, we start seeing changes in things around this time. And upon further inspection, we’ve noticed that your grades have done nothing but decline since you’ve gotten here, despite having average attendance.”

_Average attendance_. Now, that was something Tommy rarely heard. It definitely had something to do with Romeo driving him to school every day and stopping at Starbucks every morning. Coffee was the way to his heart and soul.

The Principal continued. “So, I’ve set up this meeting with you to discuss things we can put in place to improve your success rate.”

Usually, the meetings were set up with his parents before Tommy knew anything about the situation. They were powerful people, not government powerful, but they knew people who knew people who knew how to keep their son on top and on the road to success.

It was annoying.

So, to even be sat here with all of this information right now was a bonus. Tommy could keep all of this a secret, and his parents would never even have to know – which meant he wouldn’t be grounded, which meant he could still goof around after training with Romeo and his ugly car.

“Is everything at home going okay, Thomas? I know a big move like that must have been stressful-“

_It still was_.

“-And adjusting to a brand-new school must have taken its toll. We just don’t want to see your schoolwork suffer because of it.”

“Uh, yeah.” Tommy said. “It’s fine.”

He wasn’t good with speaking about stuff; he’d always been closed off and telling the Principal what went on in his head 24/7 seemed like the type of idea that would land him in a lot more trouble than it was worth. It would mean tests and therapy and a tone of prescription beta-blockers that would make him so tired and function like he was an extra in Transformers, and not the energetic, nice mechanical heap of junk robots – the evil, fatigued, old ones. Just like when he was fifteen, and his parents thought things like that would just magically go away, so Tommy had convinced them that they had.

“Okay.” The Principal said.

Obviously, he wasn’t 100% convinced.

“Very well.” He said. “I’ve decided to put in place some tutors who can help you with your subjects; specifically, English and Maths.” The Principal had some paper in his hands, and he was analysing it as he spoke. “These appear to be your worst subjects, and consequently, the most important ones for what you want to do as a career, correct?”

That confused Tommy in the moment, and the Principal smiled at him.

“Diving, correct? Your parents have put in place a strict scheme for you with this, and perhaps you can get by on average grades in the sporting industry, but at my school, Mr Martin, you need to push yourself harder to achieve the things you want. Though, we do fully support your professional advantage in such a difficult sport.”

Tommy had never wanted to leave a room more than he did right now.

“Uh, yeah, right.” He said. “Diving basically takes up all of my time. My homework comes second, I often forget about it.”

“Yes.” The Principal said. “But that cannot happen, Thomas.”

God, Tommy hated this guy.

“Though, I applaud your average B grade in Biology. You seem to be excelling in that compared to your other subjects.”

As soon as that class moved on from marine life, Tommy was done for. He’d always loved aquatic life, and it was only a coincident that his grades were so far fine in that class because, he just seemed to retain so much information about it from Blue Planet. Thanks David Attenborough.

“Thanks.” Tommy said.

“Anyway, I’ve organised an English and Maths tutor for you, two different people. My daughter, Katherine, will tutor you in English after school today in the library. Don’t be late.”

“And in maths?” Tommy asked.

* * *

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Tommy said as he rounded a bookshelf and saw Mush sat exactly where the Principal had said his maths tutor would be at lunch.

“I’m not thrilled about this either, TB.” Mush replied, glaring back at him.

“That’s a disease.”

“Well done.” Mush drawled out sarcastically. “_You’re _a disease.”

Tommy had been doing good avoiding this asshole, but now he was face to face with it, and surrounded by math books no less.

“Let’s just get this over with.” Tommy said as he sat down.

Mush nodded, opening up his large math book which had post-it notes and extensive notes in pencil across literally every page. Tommy found it very sad.

Tommy got his note book out of his bag, barely used, and Mush was visably disturbed when Tommy flicked to an empty page.

“You only have one notebook for all your classes? Aren’t you like, rich?”

“_Haha_.”

“But seriously, that’s bad.” Mush said. “How does Romeo put up with your disorganisation? I would have unfriended you on the spot.”

“You did.” Tommy said.

“Oh yeah.”

Mush flung into conversation about the work they’d be doing and catching Tommy up on the basics of his current math class, and methods and what topics were included, and what exams he’d be taking, and Tommy’s head was spinning.

“Okay, do this problem.” Mush said, pushing his book in front of him.

Tommy dug his glasses out from the bottom of his bag – extreme prescription lenses tortoise shell Ray Bans. They weren’t even ugly glasses; Tommy just hated all glasses.

Mush looked up from his phone. “Woah, jeez!”

Tommy frowned at him. “What?” He wasn’t in the mood.

“No, nothing.” And Mush took a picture of him.

“Oi!” Tommy swiped at him, trying to take the phone. “What the fuck are you doing!?”

That earned them a ‘shush’ from the librarian, and Tommy didn’t want to cause a scene in a school where nobody currently bothered him because, they had no idea who he was…The minute they started googling his name, however…So, Tommy wanted to keep under the radar as much as possible, and he decided not to fight Mush then and there.

He sat back down. “Delete it, please.” He said.

Mush put his phone back in his pocket, “Too late. I sent it to the group chat.”

“I fucking hate you.”

“Yeah well, you’re no barrel of laughs either, dickhead.”

It was a few minutes later when Mush spoke again. “What are you doing?”

“The problem.” Tommy said.

“You’re literally failing so bad at that. What are you? Stupid?”

Tommy swallowed back the embarrassment and frustration, once again, wondering if punching Mush would be worth it.

“I’m leaving.”

“No, no, wait! Tommy, sit back down, I’m sorry!” Mush said, tugging on Tommy’s backpack as the other picked it up.

“What?”  
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get on your high horse; I said I’m sorry. Please stay, I need to tutor you for extra credit, and if your grades don’t improve, then I won’t get it.” Mush explained.

_Ah, an ulterior motive, and a way to make Mush’s life a living hell_. He was at Tommy’s fingertips, and Tommy decided that this would be better than hitting him.

“Nah, I think you deserve to be knocked off of your _high horse_, Mush.” And he started putting his notebook back in his bag.

“You leave and I’ll post that video of you failing at National try outs to the school’s sports page.” Mush blurted out.

They both stared at each other, and suddenly, Tommy had been one upped again by his biggest fear.

“Fuck you, you absolute fuckin asshole. You actually think that you have any right to say that shit just to get some fucking extra credit?” Tommy said. “You’re literally more of a dick than I’ll ever be.”

And he had the nerve to leave, just so he wouldn’t have to look at Mush’s face.

Mush watched him go, suddenly not feeling as clever as he thought he was. He wasn’t one to be mean, but Tommy grated on his nerves, and he really needed this. The more credit the better. He was applying to this prestigious medical school for his plans after finishing high school, and tutoring Tommy would give him another skill set to put on his application.

He’d found the video rather easily, just by being curious and typing in Tommy’s name, and boom, there it was; with a shit load of views and career going down the drain. Mush was smart, and a comeback from that wouldn’t be easy – and from a medical enthusiast’s perspective, that had to have hurt and had a recovery journey that Tommy mustn’t have enjoyed at all.

But Mush had needed a way to make sure Tommy would actually be of use to him and his future career choice, but clearly, that had backfired and now Mush was the one sat alone with his thoughts.

“Fuck.” He mumbled to himself.

He gathered up his stuff and went after him.

“Tommy!” He shouted after him.

A few students looked at him as he rushed down the hallway, bumping into a few people.

“Tom! Thomas! Tommy Boy!” Mush called again, _that should get his attention_.

It did.

“What?” Tommy snapped, turning on his heel.

“I’m sorry, that was a dick move, I shouldn’t black mail you like that. You genuinely need help and I do wanna help.”

“For college credit.”

“For college credit.” Mush confirmed.

He looked at him, puzzled for a moment before – “Have you been crying?” Mush asked, keeping his voice quiet.

“No.” Tommy replied.

He had wanted to cry, and was looking for somewhere quiet to do so, but now he’d stopped them and didn’t need to go somewhere secluded to be frustrated.

“Anyway, I am really sorry that happened to you.”

“Oh, just fuck off, Meyers.” And this time, Tommy did hit him.

It was square in the jaw and Mush’s head snapped back at the impact and stared at Tommy as he held a hand to his throbbing face.

“What the hell!” Mush yelled.

Some students gathered around to see the commotion, with the usual chant of “Fight, fight, fight!” But Mush shook head and pushed his way through the crowd and away from the confrontation, despite wanting to hit him back.

Tommy was at a loss of what to do. He could feel all eyes on him, so he pushed his way in the opposite direction.

* * *

“Why didn’t you tell me you wore glasses!?” Romeo said as Tommy got into the car.

It was the end of the school day, and even though he was supposed to meet his English tutor, whatever her name was, he didn’t feel like it.

The beginning of the decline.

Romeo was staring at his phone, the photo that Mush had taken as clear as day, and he had that goofy smile on his face whenever he looked at something he loved so much. Like his car. Tommy felt like his car.   
“Fucking hate that guy.” Tommy said.

“Yeah, I know. Why were you in close proximity of him, anyway?” Romeo asked.

“He’s tutoring me in math for extra credit.”

“Oh my god.” Romeo laughed, “He’s tutoring _you_? No wonder he was so grouchy at lunch. Where were you anyway? Mush said he’d finished but you were a no show.”

That made Tommy curious. Mush hadn’t said anything about the small conflict, and that clearly showed how desperate Mush was to keep his school record as clean as possible.

“I dunno.” Tommy shrugged.

Romeo frowned at him. “Okay…”

Both of their phones buzzed, and they each looked down at them, and Tommy’s face paled.


	14. Extra credit gets you that extra buzz.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy is beyond pissed but mostly terrified about what things could mean. Romeo just wants everyone to get along. And Jojo is back with a lot on his mind.

Romeo found himself rushing out of his now parked car, hurrying after Tommy who wasn’t slowing his pace as he reached the front door of Mush’s house, pounding on it.

“Mush!” Tommy shouted. “Get your fucking ass out here, I swear to god!”

“Tommy, stop it!” Romeo hissed once he had reached him, “His parents might be in.”

“I don’t fucking care.” Tommy said, and he continued knocking heavily, almost hitting Mush in the face again when he answered.

Tommy grabbed Mush by his collar, shoving him up against the hallway wall as they both stumbled inside.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Mush yelled, “Get off!”

“Tommy!” Romeo protested, but he was easily ignored by the both of them.

Romeo immediately regretted driving Tommy over here when he’d asked. The shock of the notification on both of their phones had sent Tommy into a spiralling series of emotions that Romeo had been a little scared to deal with. Of course, the initial panic had turned into anger, which Mush was now getting the brunt of.

Mush was struggling to shove Tommy off of him, and Romeo was tugging at the back on Tommy’s hoodie, trying to get him to budge as Tommy practically yelled in the guy’s face.

“I walk out on your extra credit initiation party, and you actually post that fucking video?” Tommy snapped.   
Romeo watched as confusion etched onto Mush’s features, and his look actually softened. It would have looked like a funny situation if Tommy wasn’t ready to absolute kick the living day lights out of him.

“Jesus, Tommy! I said I wouldn’t! Let go of me!”

Mush managed to shove Tommy off of him with the shock of his answer.

“I don’t fucking believe you!” Tommy said, regaining his balance.

Romeo stood between the two of them, the front door still wide open with the tension bubbling up and leaking out.

“Just calm down, both of you!” Romeo looked at them both. “Tommy, Mush said he didn’t do it, so _believe _him. He doesn’t lie.”

“Like hell I’m gonna-“

“Drop it.” Romeo said.

Tommy set his glare on him now too, and Romeo felt awful for seeming like he was taking sides.

“Mush, you owe Tommy an apology anyway. You can’t just say stuff like that and expect him to be civil with you.”

Mush nodded, sorting his shirt out where Tommy’s grip had been.

“I’m sorry, okay? And I’m sorry for being a dick earlier, I’ve just been stressed out lately.” He said.

Romeo seemed satisfied with his answer. “Now, Tommy-“  
But Tommy was already off and out of the house.

“Tommy!” Romeo called after him.

Mush gently put a hand on his shoulder to stop Romeo from perusing him.

“I think you should leave him to cool off for a bit, he’s clearly pissed.” Mush said.

Romeo turned to look at him. “He’s upset.”

But Romeo didn’t move either way, and Mush finally closed the door.

“It wasn’t me that posted the video. You do believe me, right?” He asked.

Romeo nodded. “You can’t lie to save your life; that’s why you’re so brutally honest. Tommy told me about you ‘using him to get extra credit’. What were you thinking pulling something like that?”

“Ro, anyone I got told to tutor this year would have been used for extra credit. We were both just unfortunately stuck with each other. Besides, I’ll have to find someone else now anyway because, Tommy clearly isn’t gonna let me help him.”

“You call it _help_; I call it _bullying_.”

Mush rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

“Excuse me? I’m not the one who threatened him with something that clearly scares him.”

“Yeah, I know it was a dick move, but listen-“

“Oh, I’m listening alright.” Romeo crossed his arms.

“I didn’t post the video.” Mush said again.

“Then who did?” Romeo asked.

The look on Mush’s face was something that lead Romeo to believe that he clearly knew something that he didn’t.

* * *

“Guess I’m the early one for a change.” Dan said as he saw Tommy enter the changing rooms. “Except you’re incredibly late because, you’ve missed the session. What’s up?”

Tommy didn’t answer him at first, trying to process what he’d actually say.

“Well? You’ve been way too moody lately, might as well just come out and say what’s on your mind.”

“Did you post it?” Tommy asked.

“Post what?”

“The video. Did you post that stupid video to everyone in school?”

Dan frowned at him. “Okay, newsflash: I don’t even go to your school, and if I did, I wouldn’t be wasting my senior year spreading that shit around – I’d be spending it getting high and skipping class. Oh wait, I already do that.”

“This isn’t a fucking joke!” Tommy snapped.

“Okay, take a chill pill.” Dan said, putting his hands up in surrender when Tommy stepped closer to him. “I didn’t post the video. Besides, all you have to do is google your name and there it is. Why would anyone bother posting that to everyone when they can access it themselves?”

Tommy hadn’t thought of it like that. He figured Mush wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.

“Yeah, but-“

“Listen, Tommy. The world doesn’t revolve around you. If it worries you about what people think so much, why don’t you just move schools?”

He hadn’t thought about that one either.

“Like to mine.” Dan shrugged. “Nothing a private education has ever done wrong to me.”

God, Tommy couldn’t think of anything worse. He’d attended private schools when he was younger, when his parent’s thought that the system wouldn’t fail him, when really, it had always just been Tommy failing himself.

“You don’t even have to go to class considering you’re the team’s new trophy.”

For once, Tommy was thinking that abusing his diving status might actually do him some good.

“Just think about it.” Dan said, and he patted Tommy’s shoulder as he went to walk out, but not before turning on his heel; “Also, I’m having some people over tonight, you should come when you’ve stopped going psycho on everybody.”

“What? Like drinking?” Tommy asked.

Dan huffed out a breath, “Sure, whatever floats your boat. It’s nothing big. My parents are out of town on business-“

_That sounded all too familiar to Tommy_.

“-And I wanna have some fun. Looks like you could use it too. You got anything just bring it, the more shit the merrier.”

Tommy watched him leave, swinging his car keys in his hand. He probably should have asked for a ride, but the guy had grated on him ever since they’d met, yet now he was actually considering Daniel’s offer.

He sat down on one of the benches, his shoulders deflating. He’d been defeated by the contents of the video ever since it had happened, and thinking about it, he’d jumped to the worst conclusion. Really, who in his school was actually going to care about it? The only thing it would do would make him more known in the school, which he didn’t want, but like Dan had said, why didn’t he just move if it bothered him that much?

Maybe he could get his head down and actually do something right for a change. He’d failed his parents more times than he could count, and this felt like the final straw that now everyone had seen it – his biggest downfall, It had ruined everything. It shouldn’t have been an end to something he didn’t want, but he’d been so successful in competitions, and then bam, it had been all over in one dive. It shook the community, and Tommy had gone into hiding, in a way.

So, he’d got off on the wrong foot here, but he could fix that. He could move schools, ignore those who didn’t like him, still hang out with Romeo and Finch in his free time. Starting again wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, it actually let him take a breather for the first time in the last couple of hours.

It would take his parent some convincing though – to ask them to pay for his education and convince them that he wasn’t going to let them down and waste it. He wouldn’t this time. He didn’t even care about what Dan had said, that because they were on one of the top sport’s teams in the state, the school didn’t care what grade or attendance they got; but Tommy wanted them to.

This sudden mishap had made him realise that, if he didn’t want to spend his time training, he had to find something else to do with his time to give his parents a legitimate excuse as to why he’d skipped. Sure, he’d skipped the extra tutoring with the Principal’s daughter earlier, but his parents didn’t even know he was getting that, so he’d use that one this time. It would give him a good platform in convincing them to let him move away from the hellhole school he was currently at, and into somewhere where he didn’t have to see Mush or Jojo or anyone for that matter, ever again.

* * *

The guilt was swallowing him whole, and it suddenly clicked with Jojo about what he’d actually done. He’d exposed Tommy as a failure to the whole school, but it was more than that; he was deliberately pushing him away.

It had been a full-proof plan. Mush had joked about it for a while now, saying how it would knock Tommy Boy off of his high horse. The way Mush saw it, he always said that Tommy was nothing more than a spoilt, rich douchebag with everything handed to him on a plate. Jojo had always seen it as, how dare this guy come waltzing in during the most important year of their lives and mess it all up. It was his last school year with Finch, and Jojo had yet to make a move.

And that was all there was to it really. Jojo was jealous that Tommy had befriended Finch so quickly and annoyed at how Finch doted upon his every move and hung out with him whenever the opportunity arose. Over the past few months, Finch and Tommy had skipped classes together on more than one occasion, and Jojo felt like he was being left behind, and that had helped him to reach this point.

It was awful and not like him at all, but there was only so much bullshit he could take. Tommy didn’t care about Finch, he just used him as a distraction from school, and even Romeo…What could he possibly be so interested in with these two people in Jojo’s life? It was absolute nonsense.

So, Jojo had posted the video to everybody, despite Mush’s protests. Jojo knew things about Tommy that Mush didn’t – thanks to Finch never stopping talking about him to Jojo. They were still friends, and Jojo still spoke to Finch every chance that he got, which had given him a reason to take Tommy Boy down this way because, he knew he was terrified of the very same thing that had built him up from nothing to an ‘upcoming athletic superstar’. Jojo had seen all his dives online, all the interviews, all the news headlines and the video that had amassed so many viewers witnessing him fall.

He opened the door to come face to face with Daniel.

Jojo knew him to. They used to go to school together when they were younger, and Daniel played soccer for a little bit, and had been coached by his older brother in a youth club on the other side of town. Jojo wouldn’t say that he and Dan were friends, they just knew of each other on a more than acquaintance base – through their families.

Dan’s dad worked with Jojo’s dad manufacturing parts for high-end cars; a business that they’d built from the ground up. A business that Dan would definitely start learning the ropes of after school was over, but for Jojo, his dad had already banned him from the family business as soon as he’d come out as gay two years ago.

His family had always been greatly religious, and Jojo had battelled with himself internally over the issue that should never have been an issue…But here he was, regretting ever saying anything to anybody, and now he was the family screw up. He was being punished for being himself, and it was enough to shatter anybody. Jojo wasn’t about to lose anybody else, which was why he was looking straight at Daniel.

“Did you ask him?” Jojo asked.

Dan seemed to toy with the thought for a moment, and Jojo was getting antsy.

“I mean, I put the idea in his head.” Dan said.

“What did he say?”

“He seemed pretty keen on the idea of moving schools.” Dan shrugged, “But I think he’d much more stubborn that that.”

Jojo sighed. “Then actually make friends with him and get him stop interfering in _my _life. Besides, I’d thought you’d be more than happy to get all buddy with someone like Tommy. Skilful, rich family, good looking.”

Dan laughed at that. “You think he’s good looking? That’s classic for you, Jojo; claiming he’s an ‘enemy’ and then complimenting him through and through.”

“Shut up. As long as you set the idea rolling and stick to the plan, you’ll be best friends in no time.” Jojo said.

It was a thought that had occurred to Dan a while ago, but he didn’t really care much for people who didn’t have anything to offer him. Like right now, he was only here because he’d struck up a deal with Jojo – otherwise, he’d already be at home showering and getting ready for tonight.

“So, where’s my cut?” He asked, holding out his hand expectantly.

This was the part that Jojo had been dreading. The reason he’d never been friends with Dan was because, he always wanted something, and it was usually things that Jojo wasn’t fond of letting into his already messy life. But it was Jude’s, his older brother, and Dan only knew about it because, he had seen him smoking around the back of the youth club once upon a time. And now, this was where Dan came to get his own stash, as far as Jojo knew anyway.

He handed him over a small baggie of pot.

“Here. You’re lucky I could find it. Jude’s not exactly keeping it out on display.” Jojo said.

Dan only smiled as he pocketed it. “I don’t blame him, it’s good stuff. You gotta find out where he gets it for me so I can stop coming here.”

Jojo seemed hurt by that comment, despite the circumstances.

“Obviously, I don’t want your dad seeing me round here and then questioning it. We’re not friends, Jojo, never have been. Plus, my parents aren’t fond of you, you know…”

And that was what made everything ten times worse. Even some family friends hadn’t associated themselves with Jojo since he’d come out. They were the most old-fashioned people he’d ever met. He was just glad that his friends weren’t like that.

“I guess.” Jojo said.

“I don’t agree with them.” Dan said, like that made it any better.

Jojo honestly couldn’t care less about what Dan thought about him, he just wished that he’d stop coming to his door to remind of things he’d rather forget.

“I’ll try and find out where Jude gets his stuff from.” Jojo agreed.

“Perfect.” Dan grinned at him. “Well, pleasure doing business with you, Joey. I’ll be sure to follow through on my end, and before you know it, things will be back to normal.”

If only it was that simple.


	15. Codeine and the anonymous dealer with the ears to listen.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Romeo and Blink realise they've been out of the loop lately, and Mush (in his own way) tries to explain.  
Jojo has been up to no good, but the circumstances aren't what they seem.

He’d done a lot of thinking since he’d gotten home, and it was now after dinner and he was up in his room still thinking. Tommy sighed to himself, looking at his phone at the group chat he’d been added into a while ago by Dan, receiving messages of people buzzing for the social tonight.

Tommy didn’t know if he was certain that he actually wanted to go. He wasn’t the most social of people and going to Daniel’s house – where there’d most likely be many people that he didn’t know – it didn’t sound like a great time to him. Despite attending such gatherings back home, he’d enjoyed them too, but he had known most of the people there and what went down. He had no insight on what Dan would find _fun_. Well, he did, and Tommy was never opposed to the idea of getting tipsy and having a good time, but if he wanted to convince his parents to move schools – to a _private_ school, even – it was going to take a lot of effort, effort that couldn’t be wasted on coming home slashed or staying out all night.

He’d have to be clever about it.

He shot a quick text to Dan, rejecting his offer of letting lose for the night, deciding that there’d be plenty more opportunities in the future, if he ever decided to attend.

There was one pressing matter though.

Tommy reached across to his bedside draw, pulling out a strip of his prescription pain meds – almost empty. He’d have to sneak another strip from the box which was kept in a kitchen draw downstairs with all of the other household medications; amongst Advil and Ibuprofen, Tylenol, finger tape, a collection of creams, nasal spray, allergy meds, _Codeine_. It had become a habit now, popping two of the pills every night just to get the stress off of his shoulders, to drown in a high that took him away with the stars. Sleep. No pain. No pain even when there wasn’t any back pain to erase. He had become addicted to the easy access to feeling good, or rather, less stressed and carefree; and it wasn’t obvious to him that it was a problem.

He looked at the strip, always hesitating every night before he took two after he’d said goodnight to his family and turned in for the night. Tommy sighed, popping two out halfing them both to make them easier to swallow. He picked up his glass of water, washing the pills back. He always felt a sense of unease after he’d taken them, knowing that if his parents and his sister found out he’d been perhaps abusing them for quite some time now, they’d be disappointed with him, and Tommy already had enough on the line that he never, ever wanted them to know.

Tommy laid back on his bed, getting under the duvet. The clock read 10:30pm – a time that was considered ‘early’ for other kids his age, but Tommy had never been just a regular kid, and 15 to 20 minutes of waiting for that blissful high to kick was about as normal as he felt he could be.

* * *

“You shouldn’t have said that in the first place, Mush.” Blink said, watching his boyfriend pace up and down his bedroom.

“I know that!’ Mush claimed. “He just gets under my skin, okay?”

“I feel like that isn’t a good enough excuse anymore.”

“Blink…” Mush pleaded, “You can’t expect me to be _nice _to him.”

“I don’t. But is it too much to just expect you to be civil? And not give him empty threats.”

“It wasn’t that empty…” Mush admitted.

Blink looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to explain.

“Go on, tell him.” Romeo said.

He’d been sat at Mush’s desk since Blink had gotten here, wanting to watch Mush’s face felt into guilt for once in his life.

Mush glanced at him nervously. _Romeo was scary when he wanted to be_. “Okay, alright. Jojo posted the video because…”

“Because?” Blink raised an eyebrow.

“Because he’s been trying to get Tommy to move schools. I _know _it sounds stupid! Petty, even! But Tommy isn’t just some normal guy! He’s-“

“Talented? Funny? Actually, not a ‘dick’ when you get to know him?” Romeo said.

“Well, when you put it like that…” Mush mumbled.

Blink sighed, shaking his head at this mess he’d gotten into all for the sake of making sure Mush wouldn’t push too far. But he had; well, Jojo had – for whatever reason, Blink didn’t think pushing someone to move schools was all that was wrong with Jojo.

“Look, Jojo told me about his idea and I may have condoned it, but I had nothing to do with posting the video. Why would I? I mean, it’s not that hard to find anyway – you just google his name and it comes up!”

“That’s not the point!” Romeo defended. “No one at our school even knew who Tommy was! It’s not surprising that he didn’t want people to see the video no matter what the impact was! He told me that at his old school, when the video got out, he didn’t hear the end of it.”

“Funny reason to move halfway across the world.” Mush said.

“Don’t be an idiot, that’s not why they moved here. They moved here because his parents got a job opportunity.” Romeo explained.

The three of them inhabiting Mush’s room stayed silent for a little while, mainly Mush had nothing else to say – he’d been put in his place, and perhaps he had rushed into things, but he didn’t see himself as the bad guy here. He wasn’t the one to blame because…

“There’s something else, too.” Mush spoke up.

Romeo and Blink looked across at him.

“What is it?” Blink asked softly.

“Jojo’s been acting weirdly recently. Well, more weird than trying to get someone out of his life without killing them-“

“Mush, just tell us.” Romeo said.

He nodded, going on he said; “Finch said that Jo’s been hanging out with this guy outside of school. You know, over at the old youth club.”

“Yeah.”  
“Well, it just doesn’t sound great. Do you think he’s…_you know_?”

“What? Doing drugs? Don’t be an idiot, it’s Jojo.” Romeo said. “He’s probably just helping out there and been talking to someone. Besides, why would Finch know that if Jojo’s not been hanging out with him lately?”

“He followed him.” Mush said.

“Jesus, how out of the loop are we?” Romeo asked, sharing a look with Blink.

“You’ve been swooning over Tommy, and Blink’s been doing his homework!” Mush said. “Just, things have been going on lately, and I think we should see what Jojo is up to.”

“If it gets you off of Tommy’s back, then I’m in.” Romeo said.

“I’m also in.” Blink spoke up. “I could use another extracurricular.” 

* * *

Dan being on his back wasn’t the only problem he had right now. Though, Jojo wouldn’t call this guy a problem.

Every time his doorbell rang, he wondered if Dan was back for something else. He wasn’t a nice person to have around, and now that they’d executed the plan of pushing Tommy to move schools, Jojo had expected Dan to never speak to him again, but he carried on keeping in contact with him, and Jojo wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that.

He just wanted to get on with his life, not dish out pot to the delinquent at the door.

He needed to find a solution so his older brother, Jude, wouldn’t begin to get suspicious of his reducing stash; and Jojo wouldn’t get worn down by Dan’s constant pestering.

He had decided to find out once and for all who Jude’s go to dealer was- and it just so happened that dealing round the back of the old youth club was the perfect place for Jojo’s first time getting high.

He hadn’t’ enjoyed it. He’d gotten restless and hadn’t felt the ‘carefree’ attitude he’d read about on the internet via smoking a joint.

But that had been a few weeks ago, and even though he didn’t smoke himself, Jojo kept coming back to the corner of the old youth club, getting the weed and then distributing it to Dan because, there was a whole part of the story that Jojo had gotten himself into.

Jude’s dealer, Harry, who was 21 and tall, his hair scraggly in the ‘can’t be arsed to brush it’ vibe – and the converse sneakers with the laces tied at the tops, restricting the ends of his jogging bottoms. His whole persona had Jojo wondering if this was somebody he needed to be more like.

Either way, he hadn’t told Dan to his face where Jude got his pot because, the 21-year-old, scraggily hair Harry hated him. He despised Dan for reasons that Jojo hadn’t asked about. Harry had left it ‘we’ve had dealings and he’s a douchebag’ was the short and toned down version that Jojo had gotten when he’d asked one evening after an alcoholics anonymous meeting had let out, and Harry had met him round the back of the youth centre.

They’d been speaking a lot recently, and though Jojo didn’t smoke, he’d bring his own weapon of choice – usually a twix or a snickers – and the two of them would share their problems with each other for a little while.

Harry was Harry, and Jojo now understood why he was friends with his brother because, Harry would listen to anything and actually seem interested. It was more than Jojo had ever gotten from anybody, even Finch.

So, he’d continued to meet Harry in their usual spot for the past few weeks, exchanging money for said pot that he’d then give to Dan to get him off of his back, claiming that he didn’t know who Jude’s dealer was – and nobody was none the wiser.


End file.
